Ten days. There are only 10 whole days until the end of the world. Have you finished your “end of the world” shopping yet? Have you sent your “end of the world” cards, too?
The end of time, 12/21/12, is also my 45th birthday. If the Mayans are right, I’m going to have the mother of all mid-life crises.
I guess to have a proper midlife crisis, I should go out and buy a red Corvette convertible on the 20th and put it on my credit card. I mean if the world is ending, I don’t have to worry about paying it off. I could be like Congress and just go drive it off a cliff.
But it’s not the first time I thought my world was ending. In fact, I have already thought it on Dec. 21st. That was 12/21/1988 — the day I turned 21. Let’s just say it was a memorable day. Libyan terrorists bombed and brought down a Pan Am 747 over Scotland. And my girlfriend unceremoniously dumped me. Talk about giving me a reason to drink legally. I thought it was the end of the world that day.
It wasn’t. Trust me.
April 17, 2001 was another day I thought was the end of the world. That was the day I was diagnosed with cancer. My world changed but it didn’t end.
It just got better.
I thought the world ended on November 3, 2010, too. That was the day I was made part-time. But it didn’t end.
Instead, it opened up new opportunities.
A few days ago I was let go from SuperTalk. I knew the world didn’t end that day, either.
It just changed.
And that’s the thing. All those times I thought that the world ended, It didn’t — it was just different. And different isn’t exactly a bad thing.
I’m betting the farm that you’ll be reading marshallramsey.com on Dec. 22. Someone asked me if I planned on stocking up at Sams for the end of time. I kindly said, “Um, if it is the end of the world, we won’t need a 50-gallon barrel of syrup. It will be THE END OF THE WORLD.”
What I plan on Mayan Day is shipping books, drinking a toast to 45 fine years on this planet and saying thanks for all the change in my life.
Because change isn’t the end of the world. It’s the catalyst for a better world.
Our world could end in ten days. Or in ten minutes. We have been given the gift of not knowing. I’m just going to make the best of it until that moment comes. I know you will, too.
I’ve had a few of those “end of the world days” myself. Getting diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma. Losing my job with a 13 month old with an upside-down Florida mortgage.
Sadly, these situations are usually what it takes to wake us up to better situations.
My wife’s birthday is also the 21st. I’m wondering if she’ll buy the whole “Sorry I didn’t get you anything, babe. I didn’t think we’d around by the end of the day. Just trying to be Gazelle Intense!”
Great post! Don’t forget the Y2K Apocalypse. We survived that one as well. :)
That is one of the best pieces you have ever written…So true for most of us..we have all had disappointments when we thought the world surly has to end now…but as you so wisely said..it didn’t…thanks for this…I hope many more people read this and can put things in perspective…
Great post. Sometimes in life we have changes, at the time we may think it’s the end of the world but later as we look back we see it was just the end of that particular time in our life and the beginning of another. On to something bigger and better. We all need to put things in perspective as life goes on. And one day we will all come to the end but hopefully we will live life to the fullest until that day comes.
12/21/12 is also my husband & his twin brothers 55th birthday so when we toast them we will toast you too.