Older and wiser

I turn 38 years old on November the 19th. That day I would be two years from the ripe old age of 40. Being middle age is remarkable and rewarding because I have seen alot of things go down, and is still around here to talk about them. Growing up in the 1980s, I saw a lot of things in my time. It was a time I used to take care of my many nephews and nieces, and a time I used to hang out with my friends.

It was a time I used to play Nintendo with my cousin and nephews Jerrell and Ricky, and used to listen to Boys 2 Men, Vanilla Ice, and MC Hammer. The Challenger astronauts blew up the day I was attending class at Paris elementary school near Greenville. Iran Contra went down, and George Bush served as acting President while Ronald Reagan recovered from surgery. 

And Ronald Reagan got shot around that time.

As a teenager I was a child of the 1990s. The decade of Bill Clinton and the ABC channel “Thank God it’s Friday” program that used to come on Friday nights when the weekend just started. On the TGIF program of shows on ABC I used to watch Steve Urkel, Sister Sister with Tia and Tamera Mowry, and the show Step by Step. I also used to look at TRL and Carson Daly on MTV.

It was a generation of Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater, and the Timothy McVeigh situation in Oklahoma City. I was in my 20s during the 2000s decade that saw the toppling of Saddam Hussein by George W. Bush, and the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York by the Al Quada.

The generation that is coming up today has a lot to aspire to. America is the greatest country on earth, and the richest nation on the globe.

We’re the real thing and genuine article, and we’re not nothing fake or to be laughed at. And we exert our power and principles tremendously at home and also abroad. So the decision we are about to make with Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump for president should be made with America’s best interest in mind.

Having a little grey in my mustache and beard now comes with the territory of having old age.

Being middle age has a lot of advantages because you’ve been there and done that.

You now know what fits for you, and knows what you could do to reach your goals in business and with your family. I’ll need to go back to school to finish my degree, and maybe find a little lady to be my wife since
I’ve never married and had kids of my own and always took care of my brothers’ children. Being a child of the 1990s, it was truly a thing in itself. But to be older and wiser and to know what now fits for you makes all the difference.

Steven Hawkins
Greenville