Birthdays and Graduations

Tis that time of year...my birthday

Are birthdays good things to celebrate?

Or are they like the largest clock in the world, slowly ticking every 365 days to remind us that time is running out !

My clock has now ticked 46 times...old to some, young to others, beyond belief to youngsters !!

I learnt recently at a Leaders Retreat that I am a BOOMER, that those a decade younger than me are Generation X and those younger still are Millenials.

Millenials do not have a lot of time or respect really for BOOMERS, they see us as old, stubborn and set in our ways.

I think the LEADERS RETREAT got it wrong though.

Being a BOOMER is not a life category, it is an individual concept, and I am not a BOOMER at heart or in mind.

I am 46 years young and am anything but a BOOMER.

Anyway, back to birthdays......

For the longest time I loved birthdays, they were filled with amazing cakes and the greatest gifts,  then I left home at 17 and travelled to England to truly get my start in the cooking world after completing a four year apprenticeship.

After that there is only my 21st birthday that I remember, my Mum and Dad travelled to see me and gave me a small but great birthday.

For twenty years after that life was a blur as I worked almost every birthday, that is the life of a chef, our happy days fall on days when others need us to cook.

This year I took the day off.

The whole day.

The first time I can remember doing so in decades.

A long sleep and then the day was filled with love, not by gifts, but by love.

More important than gifts.

I have worked hard in my life and I have been blessed with success in several areas, cooking and writing two of them.

I have enough money these days to buy what it is I need and whatever I want.

I am not a materialistic guy and do not buy much, but the few things I do, are top shelf.

My pens are Mont Blanc, actually most of my life is Mont Blanc...but thats a gift I give myself for jobs well done and to celebrate or remember events in my life.

So come each year at birthdays, what I want are the important people around me, they number about 3 and thanks to modern social media, I am given the wonder of love from afar from friends close and new and from near and far.

We may not be close friends, but there is a special wonderment of receiving a message of love or affection, sincerity and thanks from friends and colleagues whom you have not seen or worked with in one or two decades. For them to still feel fondness for a boss twenty years on, makes me feel blessed for our time together and proves that I have done something right in my life.

In the words of Shirley Bassey, "You don't get older, you just get better"..

This year I turned 46, but Im a Bassey supporter, I don't feel older, just better at so many things.

2015 has started well, but I know whats coming and I can feel the vibe in the air around me and I know 2016 is going to be amazing, not because Im older, but because Im getting better.

William Barclay wrote ,"There are two great days in a person's life - the day we are born and the day we discover why."

I believe I know the why !!

And it is soon to arrive.

Something I have awaited along time to do, to achieve and to see to fruition and which excites me on multiple levels, is just around the corner, and will herald an entire new beginning in my life.

So 46 and things are taking a turn for the amazing again, 16 books published over 26 years, published as a journalist and writer in magazines for food, fiction and non-fiction, freelance writer for companies, corporations and catalogues, 85 countries travelled and having had the privilege to work for some of the biggest companies on earth and the most admired names in the business world and culinary too. It has been quite the ride, and yet here we stand again at the beginning of something amazing, the future.

MARCH 2015 may be my birthday but it is also Graduation season here in the Philippines and so many new faces will soon cross the threshold from study to work force. 

And my message to all the GRADUATES is this...BE PATIENT.

I have enjoyed many things in life, but the best is yet to come now and Im 46 today.

Not everything in your life has to occur the year following graduation. 

Pace yourself. 

Going slow is not the way, going full speed can just hurt, but pacing yourself and slowly fulfilling goals can achieve greater momentum.

Learn all that you can for now, don't assume to know everything from the outset, as it closes doors, learn from everyone and everything; be a sponge and absorb knowledge and wisdom to use later in life.

Writing is my sincerest passion, and many great writers did not get started until mid life 30's, 40's and later, so be comfortable to wait. 

Learn to love yourself, get comfortable within your own skin, find yourself and then the adventure begins.

You do not have to be as good as anyone else, you do not have to be the same as others, you can be whatever it is you want to be, you just have to find what that is!!

And that will only come over time.

Practice, write and repeat and then go for it.

The same goes for cooking..... practice, perfect, repeat .

For a young boy from Tasmania, Australia I could never have ever written the strange twists and story lines that have become my life, no one would believe everything could happen to one person in one lifetime. But thats the great thing about life. 

It is unscripted and unbelievable at times.

Its not always happy and joyous though, I have lost friends and family during the adventure of my life, but I have survived and while I do miss them all, somehow each one has given me, knowledge and lessons that have brought me to this place.

Graduation is your start to an amazing adventure. Enjoy it, don't take things so seriously at first, but do not be frivolous either. 

Relax into your new world and let it lead you were it may.

If I had followed the course my life had for me, I would still be sitting in a tiny island at the bottom of Australia, instead 85 countries later, having worked in television, authoring books and publishing columns under my own "by line", I am happy to say that life for me, is just getting started one more time.

Im 46 years young and just getting started.

In the words of Pablo Picasso,"It takes a long time to become young".

And my favorite quote of all times is by J.M.Barrie

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

To all those graduating best of luck, and to all of those who wished me happy birthday, I love you all, my heart is young because I have the greatest bunch of friends who care and show their friendship when it matters most.