I can also empathize- I noted earlier that I was not terribly bright in my early years. I lived nearly five hundred years before I accepted that I was fundamentally different from others. Even then I made mistakes, the kind that often required me to claw my way out of a shallow grave once darkness fell. I look back on those times now and I wonder how I could ever have been so foolish. Fortunately for me I do not carry the physical burden of past errors.

I did not expect to make it past 17 so everything since then has been gravy and I savor it all the more because of that.

Most of the excitement of my youth was inspired by the stupid mistakes I made (it wasn’t until I was thirty that I could discern between “Stand up” and “Shut up”) and I tend to make mistakes no more than three times each. With most of the stupid errors done and those lessons learned, the things I botch today are more subtle. Subtle screwups tend to be a lot less thrilling.

So I, for one, am happy settling into the gray of my own twilight years. I’m enjoying the rest.

It would be a bitch to find this is only the beginning, that I have centuries yet to go. I already find myself thinking, “Shit, if I had known I was gonna live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”