10/22/2001 Entry: "Life Expectancy."

When I was a wee lad, long ago, I firmly believed I would die by the time I was 30. I think it was some kind of AIDS anxiety played out in the mind of a newly out gay boy in 1985. (I'm sure it was helped along by my natural hypochondria and Gawth-ick sense of drama. In the ignorance of youth, I know I said "People like me don't have very long life-expectancies." I fear that I will live to regret saying that.) Nonetheless, I'm happy to report that today proves my 15-year-old self wrong since I've lived through to 31.

I also found that , as the years went by, the age at which I was going to drop dead kept rising. When I was 20, life was going to end at 40. At age 25, 50 started looking promising for that final dissappointment. In some ways my whole life has been one long mid-life crisis.

And thank you, Mom. Let's face it, you did all the hard work. I just screamed.

Replies: One Comment

I, of course, have another nine months to prove my prediction incorrect.

It's been interesting to me seeing how those "age horizons" keep expanding at both ends. As I've gotten older, my definition of "old" keeps going up, but so does my definition of "young"...

"Oh my gawd, he's so young!"
"Umm, he's 24."
"Like I said..."

Posted by David @ 10/23/2001 03:12 PM PST