Okay, so my 50th birthday was coming up, and I was thinking, “What the heck am I gonna do?” I mean, 50, that’s half a century! I gotta make it count, right?
So, first, I started looking around online, just to see what other people do for their big 5-0. I found some blogs, some social media, you know, the usual stuff. I even checked out Pinterest. There are some posts about parties and cakes, some about trips. They are just so-so and not that creative.
Then I thought, “I don’t want just any party.” I wanted something… different. Something memorable. But what? I browsed a little more, looking at what people usually like. Crafting? Designing? They are interesting, but not for a birthday, I guess.
Then it hit me. I love numbers. Always have. And 50, it’s a special number, right? It’s a cardinal number, meaning it tells you how many. And if you think of it in a list, it would be an ordinal number, marking its position.
So, I decided to dive into the number 50 itself. I started playing around with it, you know? What can you do with 50? I tried simplifying it, like breaking it down. You can divide it, you can add to it, you can find numbers that multiply to make it. It is interesting, playing with numbers, but what can I do with them?
I even used some online calculator, you know, the kind that simplifies expressions. I typed in all sorts of things, just to see what would happen. “+” becomes “%2B” or something when passing to forms. Weird.
And then I had another idea. Since 50 is half of 100, and 100 is like, the perfect score, maybe I could do something that’s half of something big. Like, a half marathon! I’m not a runner, not at all, but it sounded fun, you know, challenging.
But then, I wanted to do something with the number 50 itself, not just what it represents. So, I went back to the calculator, trying different combinations. I started thinking about what else I could do with the number. Fifty states? Fifty countries? Hmm, not bad, but how can I make it more… personal?
And then, after a lot of thinking and messing around, I figured it out. I decided to make a list of 50 things I love, 50 things I’m grateful for, and 50 things I want to do before I kick the bucket. It was like, a celebration of my past, present, and future, all wrapped up in one number.
So, that’s what I did. I made three lists, and I didn’t just write them down. I made it a whole thing. I used a nice notebook, colored pens, the works. I really thought about each item, you know, made it meaningful. It took me a few days, actually, to get it all down.
The Lists
Here is what I’ve come up with:
- 50 Things I Love: This list is not hard to think of. I love my family, my friends, the place I lived. I also wrote down stuff like “the smell of coffee in the morning,” “a good book on a rainy day,” that kind of thing.
- 50 Things I’m Grateful For: This one is a bit harder. But I listed out the big things, like my health, my job, my home. Then I added some smaller stuff, like “that one time a stranger helped me” or “the perfect weather on my wedding day.”
- 50 Things to Do Before I Die: Okay, this is the fun one. I put in some travel stuff, like “visit Japan” and “see the Northern Lights.” And some personal goals, like “learn to play the guitar” and “write a book.” Some were silly, like “eat a whole cake by myself” or “learn to juggle.”
And you know what? It felt great. It wasn’t just a birthday plan anymore. It was like, a reflection of my life, you know? And it gave me a bunch of stuff to look forward to. So, yeah, that’s how I celebrated my 50th. It wasn’t just a party or a trip. It was a whole project, something I put my heart into. And I gotta say, it was the perfect way to start the next 50 years.
