Half Dead…

My Grim Reflections on Turning Thirty-Five

Update: Since originally writing this, I’ve come to realize that I am much better suited to being a mere freelance digital marketer and content creator...

Today is November 21, 2020. As I sit down to write this, I am currently cozied up by the fireplace at my favorite mountain lodge in Nikko. It’s my birthday today and I’ve just turned thirty-five years old. My oh my does the time fly! Assuming that I’m able to live to the age of seventy, this means that half of my life is already over. Put in terms of weeks, I only have but a mere 1,820 weeks left until I meet my makers. While I want to try to eke out as much lifespan as long as I possibly can, even this finite amount of time isn’t guaranteed. Grim as it is to contemplate one’s own demise, I find that introspective moments like this are key to living one’s best life.

In all honesty, the journey from thirty-four to thirty-five has been a rough one for me. Like with many people all over the planet, I’ve had to come to terms with 2020 canceling all that I’ve held dear. For the past several years, I’ve prided myself on helping get more and more foreign visitors to Japan off of the beaten path. As I outlined in Rejecting My Ikigai, I had opted to keep a rather dull but decent paying day job in marketing to finance all of my adventures. Though not exactly…