In a few weeks I turn 60. Something I am noticing is some people are not as evolved from their younger selves as they would like to be seen.

It’s funny and also a little sad. With some it was also predictable.

There are people that if you have a use, you are front and center. But when the use evaporates so do they from your life. You simply don’t hear from them. I’m actually not upset or terribly wounded, I expected it with a few people.

Some of these people are people where I sat and listened whenever they needed an ear. I have kept their confidences, but with some I know that it has not been reciprocal, they have used our confidences to curry favors elsewhere. Simply put, that breaks the trust. Trust is a big deal.

Then of course there is the irony of who you see some people now affiliated with whom they swore they never would be bothered with.

I am a friend to people even if I don’t need a thing from them. I wasn’t raised to view friendships as transactional relationships.

A lot of people I feel don’t actually know how to give in any meaningful way in any kind of relationship. It’s not a simple question of manners, a lot of the time either.

I am a blogger and have been for many years at this point. Probably close to 25, so that definitely makes me OG. As a blogger, I have discovered over the years that well yeah, there are people that just want to know you because they wonder what you can do for them with one of your blogs. Then there are the “friends” who don’t know you a lot of the time because you blog.

There are also the people I won’t hear from in years, whom I have known for forever, but as soon as they need something, they remember my phone number. And if that favor requires potential blogging on a topic, God forbid you don’t go as far as they think you should go.

There is that saying about people being in your life for a reason, season, or lifetime. It really is true.

As we age, we don’t necessarily grow in sync with everyone. It’s human nature. I have never operated on the pretense that I am perfect or have led a perfect life, but each decade I have lived has shown me things about life and people.

My 50s showed me how odd people can be, and if women, also how they can be oddly competitive. In my 50s, I saw the women that used to exclude me from things in my late 20s and early 30s because I wasn’t married yet and they were, switch to excluding me from things because they are now single and I am not.

My low tolerance for bullshit this last decade has made me somewhat unpopular in certain circles. But I’ve always been practical, and I figure if people can’t take me as I am but expect me to take them as they want to pretend to be, why do I want to be around them anyway? I am an acquired taste, besides.

60 theoretically is kind of a weird concept for me. I had breast cancer at 47 so literally back then I wondered if I would actually see 60. But here I am. I honestly still don’t know how I feel about my upcoming “milestone” birthday.

What is also so inconceivable are all the memories of all the decades of my life that I have.

Anyway, here’s to the next decade, it’s almost here.