I guess, from everything I’ve been reading and hearing, this is a pretty big year for me. You might say I’ve waited my whole life for this particular landmark to come.

I guess it has something to do with my age, but, honestly, I don’t understand what the big deal is about my upcoming 50th birthday. Although I don’t feel any different, I am getting subtle hints that maybe I should act my age.

The hints aren’t coming from friends. They’re in the same age group I am and are just as perplexed by the number 50 and its alleged ramifications.

One friend who passed the landmark a couple years ago hurt her knee while running. When she explained to her doctor the nature of her injury and how she did it, he shook his head and asked, “Why are you running, you’re not 25 years old anymore. You can’t be doing things like this and not expect to get hurt.”

The thing is even 25-year-olds hurt their knees when they’re running if they twist it. I guess getting hurt when you’re in your 20s is age appropriate. They’re never asked why they do the things they do and whether they think they are 50. The reality is people of all ages hurt themselves when they overextend themselves.

Growing older is a fact of life. Every 365 days, we all celebrate our respective birthdays and call ourselves another year older and, hopefully, wiser. So what does acting our age mean? It took us a long time to get where we are, and a lot of us aren’t yet where we ultimately want to be.

Sometimes when I dwell on my past mistakes and experiences I catch myself saying, “if only I knew then what I know now, my life would somehow be different.” The thing is none of us knew those things then, and there was no way we could know those things without experiencing all the struggles, hurdles, the bad times and the good times. All of those things we learned throughout the years define who we are right now. And, hopefully, we are still experiencing and learning things, challenging us to redefine ourselves.

Why do we tend to panic about what we can or can’t do and what we look like when we reach a certain arbitrary age? Our lives don’t suddenly stop just because of a number. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “We do not quit playing because we grow old. We grow old because we quit playing.” We can never go back in time to change things in our lives we can only go forward to do that.

I also think age is relative. It’s how you choose to label it that matters. When I look in the mirror, I don’t see 50 years old to be the age I perceived it to be when I was a teenager. As a teenager, I remember thinking of the age 50 as being pretty old. I also thought it was an age I really didn’t have to worry about because it was a long time in coming.

Now, it’s here.

And, my very own teenage daughter reminded me it was an arbitrary number that doesn’t mean anything recently when she commented on a hat I had purchased. When I put the hat on and asked her opinion of it, she said, “I guess it’s OK for someone who’s 50.”

When I told that I was, in fact, close to 50, she shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Well, if you think it fits, then I guess wear it.”

I put it away, deciding it didn’t quite fit yet. Who knows? Maybe, it never will.