It’s been a day coming, for close to 40 years, all though it was so far in the distance when I was 17, because 18 was coming first. I was going to be an adult, a voting, drivers license bearing adult. At that time 25 felt ancient. But then I reached 25, and the year after I started my bachelor’s degree, with a class full of 19 year olds. I felt very old, and so out-of-the-know because I hadn’t had programming in high school. I had the arrival of the Internet in high school. After that I did 19 months of military service, a few courses in Lund and Malmö before the Australian adventure and the year and a half of working. I had life experience before I embarked on my first degree in the southern town of Karlskrona.

When I started my master’s degree in Bergen, Norway, and also my vlogging on Youtube, I was still much older than most in that switching V for K-sound town by the fjords and the seven mountains. I didn’t have a set plan, other than making sense of my youtubing in a big essay on cross-platform identity creation. When I went back to Karlskrona, where I’m currently sitting right now and writing this, just across from campus, I took up some teaching. But now, I felt young instead. I didn’t have a gray beard and a brown sweater. But at least I could make use of my knowledge.

Around this time, I hit the big 30. The 20 something years were over and this transition from promising to make shit happen took place on the Greek island of Skiathos. I sat on the beach over midnight, listen to Nina Simone’s amazing rendition of Mr Bojangles on repeat. I can’t remember if I had a plan for the coming 10 years, but knowing myself right, I probably didn’t. I’m a humanities person. I do good shit and hopefully good shit happens. And it has.

Within the coming 10 years, I got my master’s degree, I started my own company, I gave lectures in several European cities, I got married, I can haz cats and I got a steady job. Yes, a steady white collar office job, which is something I swore I would never end up doing. But at least it’s in a creative business (so he said with a little left brain side shame). I continue to make a mark on the people I work with, the people I care for and the business I operate in.

But this summer, I will be hitting 40. But I don’t really feel the age. I am questioning how we count time, but the reason for that is that my perception of 40 is not my current one, it’s from when I was 17. For as long as I stay healthy and active, as long as I stay creative and curious, I will not be old in the negative connotation fo the word. But, I still have a few months to go. On that fateful Sunday, July 21st, I will have celebrated the day before, and be on my way out in Europe. But the song that will make the transition at midnight, is still not decided.

I made a video about this, probably one of my favorite ones in the Good Talk series. Have a look, and a listen. I’d appreciate it.