worldmegan

A few minutes ago I began to make something like a life list (thanks, D!), expounding on my previous 101/1001 material and laying out goals by timeframe and year. I began with 2010, age 29, and started working my way forward, 2 years, 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, 15 years…

And as I added my respective ages, the numbers increasing, passing fleeting thoughts of goodness, I will be so much older then—I suddenly, inexplicably started to see the ages as levels. I’m pretty sure this happened because my dwarven hunter in World of Warcraft is level 33, getting closer and closer to 34. And 34 is the age I will become in January of 2015.

I stared at the page for awhile, realizing that thinking of aging as leveling up is an incredibly more positive way to think of aging. And I hadn’t even done it on purpose; it had just happened. All of a sudden I wasn’t dealing with a decline in youth… I was dealing with an incline, an increase, in experience and power and wisdom and vitality. All of a sudden, leveling up myself was the most coveted, most anticipated thing I could think to do.

I don’t know how anyone else will feel about it. But I’m still feeling like… wow.