O’s Opinions

Ch-Ch-Changes

August 26, 2009 - Posted in Healthier Living, My Crazy Head, Rants, Relationships, Society's Ills

I spent my twenties trying to figure who I was and what I should be doing.  You know, forming an identity.  I spent my thirties creating stability and settling into my roles.  Now in my forties, I feel the need to change many aspects of my life and revamp parts of my identity. 

I guess this is the so-called mid-life crisis.  I’m not doing the stereotypical things like buying sports cars or having affairs.  In fact, as I look at my peers, most of them appear to be doing a lot of the same things I am doing - looking for something that will make the next decade different, in a positive, productive way. 

I think society should stop using the phrase “mid-life crisis” and find a more positive term to describe the need to make changes in our lives.  “Mid-life crisis” conjures up images of leathery blondes in tight clothes desperately looking for a young lover, or a man with a bad comb-over buying a yacht to compensate for his lost virility.

I was trying to come up with a new, positive phrase for this period of life, but the word “change” kept popping into my head.  As this is associated with a woman transitioning into her menopausal years, I decided that it is not the terminology I was looking for.  I also thought “mid-life” sounds so old.  Although people in their forties are in the middle period of their lives, they are still very vibrant and full of life, not at all the image that “mid-life” is associated with.

I checked a thesaurus to see what they had listed for synonyms of mid-life and the last entry was “the wrong side of forty”.  Ugh.  That is horrible.  Who I am at 41 is a different person than who I was at 31.  Why is that wrong?

Does anyone have any ideas for a new name for this period of life?  Let’s start a revolution and make people think about this differently.  Send suggestions to me, I’m on board!

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