Pedley's Ponderings

I logged another trip around the sun last week. This venture marked my 34th.

I don’t get very excited about my birthday. My last fun one occurred 13 years ago now, and mid-January in Iowa is never very conducive to a great time – this year I spent my birthday covering a city council meeting.

Of course, the silver lining to each birthday is that you’re having one, as the alternative is much worse. Alas, I am thankful for the 34th just as I hope to see the 35th.

Nowadays, I often space off the “big day” and need to be reminded it’s coming. This year was no different, as my wife had to ask what I wanted to do for it. “Oh yeah....uhh...” was my response.

We didn’t do very much to celebrate, which was fine by me. I’m not much for attention and would rather proceed with my day as usual, but our kids were excited so I figured I better oblige them. I made some food that I wanted and we had some cake. The kids made me a book that stated I was 43 instead of 34, which seems partially true some days depending on how much they’re testing my patience.

A brief diagnostic check of me at 34 reveals a different person than the one a few years ago. Succinctly put, I’m more focused on things that I can change rather than things I cannot. Where in the past I might get hot about politics, sports or other flavors of the day, now I mostly just shrug. There’s nothing I can do about it, anyway.

I’m much more intentionally shuttered now than I was in my past, too. I’m more absorbed in family, friends and other aspects of daily life than I am in the goings-on of the world, which is for the better. I don’t dabble in social media, I generally ignore daily news and I refuse to partake in the greater culture war that seems to hold so many others in constant rage. I’m happy for that, because it seems exhausting. I’m tired enough most days.

I still have a hard time grasping where the time has gone. I was 24 just a few years ago it seems, but the math tells me it was 10. One of my kids is almost eight and the other is six, but they were just in diapers, right?

There’s a photo on my office desk of me holding a giggling Oliver when he was a baby. I remember the day vividly, even though it was seven years ago. He was decked out in Hawkeye gear for the big Cy-Hawk game that afternoon, I went to my nephew’s peewee football game that morning, and later I worked on our old house in Ocheyedan. I listened on the radio as the Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones in thrilling fashion while choking on dust and accomplishing little. Since then, we finished that house, sold it and moved, but it doesn’t seem possible it’s all happened since that moment in time was captured. Time flies.

So it goes. The only constant thing in life is change, and despite my nostalgic bent, I’m constantly hoping for it. What that means is often vague, but I do feel optimistic about Year 34 for reasons I cannot particularly explain. I just hope it’s a good one.

As the stat sheet reads today, I’m a 34-year-old husband and father of two. I have a job and roof over my head, which I hope remains unchanged over the coming year. I’m fatter and balder than I was 10 years ago, and my back is liable go out while putting on pants. Still, I’m happy to be surrounded by people I care about. There are things I wish I had done differently in the past, but I realize I cannot change them. The time ahead of me is all I’ve got and I hope to make the most of it, or at least try to.

Cheers to another year.

Nick Pedley is the news editor and ad manager of The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News.