Happy Birthday To Me
Today is my 50th birthday. I’m writing this from home because I was too ill to get out of bed at three o’clock this morning. What are the odds on that? In 28 years in the workforce, I’ve called in sick no more than a dozen days. But I did so on the very day I turned fifty… (50)… The big five-oh… No way to make it sound better.
I’m sure everyone at work thinks I simply celebrated hard last night before entering the next decade, and that’s okay with me. It sounds a little more youthful and vibrant than the reality---I just felt like crap.
Actually I have no problem with being fifty, other than saying it out loud. But one thing blows me away:
When I started working at KXLY, I was 25.
I’ve spent half my life in one place.
Three years was the plan. Three years in Spokane, and then on to work in my hometown—Seattle. But here I am, with a beautiful wife, two daughters, and a mortgage anchoring me firmly in Spokane. Unlike many in broadcasting, I’m having trouble finding the bad in that.
In my business, people are constantly on the move---presumably upward. I’ve watched dozens of my colleagues play this leapfrog game. To Portland, then Seattle… Maybe Chicago or San Francisco after that. There is a lot more money to be made in those bigger cities. But the ones who are looking for happiness, wind up leaving the business, or leapfrogging backwards a city or two.
Over a quarter century, my perspective has changed. I believe now that I actually stuck to that plan from 25 years ago. I am living and working in my hometown---Spokane, Washington. I’m not sure when, but at some point, I started telling people that I grew up in Seattle, but I'm from Spokane.
Today I want to amend that. I spent my childhood in Seattle, but I grew up in Spokane---my hometown.