And the World Grows Old with You...

Have you ever been disoriented by the sight of college kids crawling and rolling down the street in drunken stupor, not because the laughable image is somewhat annoying, but because there was a time in your life when people looking that young were still high schoolers? Do you remember that one day you had a conversation with friends and realized that many of your former schoolmates and other friends are getting married or having children? How about the shocking news that some acquaintances have passed on due to medical complications that are not typical in persons in their mid-20's to early-30's? How did you react when you heard updates of friends becoming regional managers at a big consumer company, or have the title "VP" attached to their name?

The 30-year mark of my existence in this world beckons on the eve of the launch of the Beijing Summer Olympics. The Chinese are very particular about numbers, and have found that the number 8 is an extremely lucky digit to have around, so much so that the Olympic organizers have decided to launch the Olympics on August 8, 2008, at 8 minutes after 8. It isn't the number 8, however, that is swimming in my mind like a guppy dropped in a goblet of merlot. The number 30 is upon me, and surprisingly, I invite it with open arms and heart-pumping anticipation.

This is the year that I become the stories I have witnessed thus far, and take life to an all new level. It is the time for me to shape my career with utmost prudence, and take it down a balanced path of uncertainty, excitement and reasonable calculation. It is the period in which I allow the smallest of mistakes and annoyances to become challenges, and the fatigue of having a year-older body, an opportunity to return to a rejuvenated physical and emotional state of being. This is the year when music, interests, relationships, goals and travel merge into one scheme of life. This is definitely the year that calls me to be as mature as an adult as I need to be, and removal of all the "unnecessaries" and complications becomes a priority. This is also a year when I must take up one notch my responsibility to myself and those most important to me.

Appropriately, it is the Olympics that houses the slogan, "Faster - Higher - Stronger," and as the world grows older, such a simple yet powerful thematic motivation could not have come at a better time...and to mark my 30 years, an even more precise celebration, down to the day and down to the minute. 8:08.