Insert Age-Related Cliché Here, But Really Perfectly Happy to be 39

It's my birthday today.  And there'll be no crying, at least none is planned, even if I am free to do so.  In fact, I woke up this morning reflecting on how lucky I am.  I feel like I have more wonderful people in my life and great experiences that I could have ever imagined.

I have always wanted to see the world, and that I have largely done.  I've been to around 100 countries on every continent (save one) and lived and worked in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia.  Not bad for 39 years old.

I have always loved new electronic gadgets.  Ever since I was a kid, waiting eagerly for a Sony walkman for Christmas.  Now, I have so many and all the ones I want, I got to CES and even I can't think of anything that I really want that I can't have.

But it is the things, or more importantly the relationships, that I never wished for that have proven to be much better than anything my own imagination could have come up with as a kid.   I never appreciated how amazing my parents have been to me, or how many sacrifices they have made so that I could go to good schools and graduate college without debt.  And both my mother and father have been supportive of everything I have done all along the way.

I never expected to get married or have children, but I find myself married to the best husband in the world.   He's smart, patient, and thoughtful as well.  I'm not sure why he has continued to put up with me, a sure sign of a defect somewhere that I have not been able to locate, but I'm very grateful.

Watching my mother read stories to my kids at bedtime has helped me remember how much I got from her and how lucky I am that she is around to give the same to my own children.  And as for my children, they are the single best choice I have ever made.  Forget yoga or meditation or, for that matter, medication. Nothing makes you feel great like snapping a broken toy back together and watching them giggle, jump for joy and run around.

Everything I have I owe to the kindness of other people in my life.  Job. Kids, Family.  I didn't get any of those things without a lot of help.  I'm a hard worker, but there's no question I have received outsize rewards for my efforts.  I was hired for my very first job sight-unseen after cold-calling the company.  I wanted to work in Africa and I convinced the head of marketing at Nigeria's first cell phone company to take a risk and hire me for the summer and pay my travel costs.  I am sure there were more qualified people he could have hired, but he took a risk and hired me instead.

And stories like that have been continuous in my career, giving me opportunity after opportunity and more than one second chance.  I'd like to think I've learned from my mistakes, but there's no hard proof of that so far.  

I was looking at my list of Facebook friends last night and was amazed at how many of them are real friends, people with whom I have a genuine connection.  I just couldn't even have imaged having more than 20 friends at one point.

My life is not perfect by any means, but overall,  I consider myself extremely lucky.  The Economist says that life's unhappiness peaks at age 46, just about 7 years away.  If that's a mid-life crisis, I am already looking forward to it.