It's my birthday!

Much like last year, I'm recycling my facebook post as my birthday blog post. Enjoy, as they're probably my shortest posts of each year! I first saw this video on Drunkcyclist.com and the blog post about the video was mostly about what makes a person "rich"...money vs really living your life. Cool, huh? But then I actually watched it, and loved it. To make it even more perfect, it's actually about someone celebrating his 35th birthday with a birthday challenge.
35 from ARC'TERYX on Vimeo.

OK, I'm not actually completing any sort of birthday challenge, unless one considers teaching all day and then going to night class a challenge, and I'll hopefully never find my lunch in a dumpster, but the message that life isn't all about bank accounts and things but rather about moments and experiences and the people who you share them with resonated with me.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"Inside, we are all capable of surprising ourselves."

"What I want to be is happy, excited, inspired."

"I don't want to say, 'I wish....'  I  want to say, 'Damn, that was awesome!'"

"My heroes are my belay partners."

Well, MY heroes are both the strangers who inspire from a distance with huge accomplishments and the friends who email suggesting our latest hairbrained scheme.  They're my teammates and my partners in adventure, the ones who make turning 40 feel like a good start, and if you're keeping track in those terms, I'm rich indeed.