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New age bracket, new me.

Sally Clarke
3 min readMay 10, 2023

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How I feel today (Also, I miss u, Sierra Nevada)

There are birthdays. And then, there are birthdays when you move to a new age bracket when filling in online forms.

Bye, ‘40–44’. Hello, ‘45–54’.

To my early-teen self, listening to Gish, Debut and Black Sunday back in the nineties, the concept of turning 45 felt about as relevant as turning 95.

Wildly far off. Beyond-the-horizon distant. Theoretical.

Olllllld.

And here I am.

Truth? Right now, 45 feels amazing. I’m happy, healthy, energized. I straight up adore my work. I have a beautiful group of friends. I experience the kind of constant evolution that makes my heart glow.

I’m pretty sure my teenage self, though dismayed by my wrinkles and scarred knees, would be very stoked to hear about how her life looks now.

It helps that I’m generally not averse to birthdays. Beyond the cliché about getting older being better than its alternative, birthdays are a great opportunity to reflect on the past and meditate on a vision for the future. Here are three lenses I use, and my insights at 45.

1. Looking back on the journey so far

Each birthday I take time to look back at the path I have wandered thus far. I bear witness to the deepest crevices and the…

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Sally Clarke
Sally Clarke

Written by Sally Clarke

Wellbeing & burnout author, expert, writer & speaker. Global adventurer. she/her www.salcla.com

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