Eight reasons I'm happy to be my age

Thoughts on teetering on the verge of 60

Me not long after I turned 50—my last landmark birthday. (I know, I know, I need to get more recent pics taken.) Photo by my talented brother Todd

1. I no longer feel the need to be the coolest/funniest/smartest/cutest person in the room It’s kind of embarrassing how much the approval of others used to mean to me—it still does, of course, but not like it used to. When we’re younger, one easy-to-measure way to chart our progress as adults is to compare oneself to others. As we get older, we hopefully recognize the pointlessness and even destructiveness of that activity, or at least engage in it less. We come to believe that we’re living in a world where there’s plenty of room for all of us to be cool/funny/smart/cute. And a world where maybe being some or all of those things isn’t even the priority it used to be.