Fun Fact:  My first semester of graduate school was for information technology.  At some point that semester it occurred to me that the path I was on was going to doom me to a life of polo shirts and working from a cubicle.

That felt like misery.

Instead, I deviated towards the less lucrative and vastly more interesting path of journalism.

Twenty-something years of storytelling and teaching later, I found that I needed to find a new path.

So I chose the the path of curiosity.

The places where wonder lives.

And as it turns out those are the places where stories are born.

There’s this thing that seems to happen to guys in their middle age years. I’m confident there is a parallel scenario for women, but a woman should write that story. I can only speak from my experience and other guys I’ve talked to. You can be in your early thirties and be a rising star in a career. After forty, that status magically changes to irrelevant. We are valued as long as we’re useful but, once that usefulness runs out so does people’s interest. For many men, they’ve done their part to raise their kids and be a husband. They’ve worked whatever job they’ve needed to. Some haven’t. But, most have even if imperfectly. Maybe they weren’t always the best dads or the best husbands but, most often they did what they thought they needed to do. They tried to stay useful.

Then one day the kids don’t need you and one day your job really wishes they had someone different in your position. Promote or perish. You just don’t fit what they want any longer. You’re past your expiration. You’re the wrong demographic. And so, your usefulness runs out and you get the distinct impression, that those you’ve tried to support over the years are actively looking for your replacement.

You just aren’t what anybody wants anymore.
And so you have to adapt to this new reality.

You’ve lost your purpose. And very often any semblance of hope that came with it.

In motion, but going nowhere.

You’re drifting alone at sea.

Peter Pan is a deeper story than most give it credit. Two characters, one who refuses to grow up and the other, Hook, is constantly pursued by time and death.

It is the story of all of us. We are caught in between these two forces. We’re afraid of living because we’re afraid of dying.

We grow up with big dreams. We believe the world will be different because of us. We imagine ourselves gods of our time.

We check off those life goals. We get an education. We get a job. We put in the work. We do all the things we think we’re supposed to do.

And you realize.

I’m just another guy wearing khaki pants and sitting at a computer all day.

I’m just another guy pulling a shift for a company that doesn’t know I exist.

We are none of the things that we promised ourselves that we would be.

Punch a clock. Sit in traffic. Stay safe. Get fat. Wait for our turn to die.

Dead today, replaced tomorrow.

And you’re left thinking…

Is that it? Is that the best I have to offer? Is this all my life will add up to?

Maybe. Or maybe I can be more.

I think there’s a point we have to make a decision on what comes next.

Call it a midlife crisis if you want.

It’s really a point of reckoning.