Part 3 of … 3? 4? Who even knows at this point (you can find my Midlife Crisis Part 1 here, and Part 2 here). Maybe though, I’m not actually going through a midlife crisis. Is it possible that all of this is just some sort of transformation? I’m going to date myself here, but does anyone remember the Transformers of the 1980’s? Maybe the first half of my life I was simply the car, innocuously driving around, and now? Now I’m that crazy robot ready to terrorize the mean streets of … Bentonville, Arkansas? 🤣
Or something.
Who knows. All I’m saying is, I haven’t gone out and recklessly bought my dream lake house … yet. So maybe this is just simply, a transformation? Sure. Let’s go with that, haha.
I did, however, get a tattoo. Actually, two. Perhaps we can consider that to be indicative of a midlife crisis?
“To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.”
Steve Prefontaine
The first of a few more, for sure. I already know of at least three more that I want to get, what they will be, and where I want them. But the stories behind my tattoos are worthy of an entire blog post itself. So I’ll put that one in the hopper for future consumption …
Anyway though, up until a few months ago, I thought I had one more trick up my sleeve with this whole, midlife crisis of, “I’m-going-to-get-tattoos-and-piercings-and-haircuts-and … [fill in the blank here].” But then I got sidetracked, my world shifted, and now I’m just throwing my hands up over here once again.
“You are worth of the person on the other side of hard.”
Erika Massey
But where does that land me, and what is my hard?
The simple acceptance that someone might find you beautiful, or even acknowledgment of that, is unfathomable to most of us. Why is that though? Where along the way, do we lose our sense of self? Why do we stop loving ourselves? When?
I mean maybe that is what a midlife crisis tries to do? Is a midlife crisis – a belly button piercing, hair cut, tattoo – whatever it may be, an attempt to (re)gain some sort of control in our lives again?
Re-set?
Wake up?
Recognize?
If so, is it possible that a midlife crisis – or a transformation – isn’t all that bad? Whether it is one, or two, or three, or however many crises it takes, I think I’ll embrace where I’m headed. For the first time in a long time.
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So do we think there’s going to be a Midlife Crisis, Part 4? Yeah … I’m pretty sure there’s another cat ready to be let out of a bag over here at 1804. 😅