The back-half of my life: Challenging myself to be myself

 

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The back-half of my life: Challenging myself to be myself

by Jen Davies, nerd

Jan 14, 2026 (not my bday)


Last week I completed the rotation around the sun that almost certainly represents the mid-way point of my lifespan. In fact, that rotation may have happened a few years ago and I just didn't know it, but I'm quite confident now that I'm in the back-half of my life. I think golfers would call my upcoming years "the back nine".

I'm grateful that I have no inclination to change my marital relationship, buy a sports car, or pursue surgical alteration to hide my age. I'm not bothered to be well on my way to 50 years old, not everyone gets even that many years. Still, I'm always grateful when someone tells me I don't look 50 - I say the secret is to stay overweight and push the wrinkles out from behind! Like autobody repair.

This is the point in life when some people start wondering about what kind of "legacy" they'll leave behind. I'm grateful that my work has been in education and social services, so my work has always made the kind of impact on the world that I wanted to make by supporting other people to accomplish their goals. 

In the first half of my life I was definitely more focused on career development for myself, for financial and professional growth reasons. Still interested in professional growth but now it's more about personal challenges - can I do this? How much can I do? How creative can I be about it? 

And it happened through a funny series of coincidences that I rewatched the Star Wars sequel films and (again) got very upset about the end of The Rise of Skywalker (for so many reasons), went down an #AdamDriver rabbit hole, and was ready to remain upset about the cancelled The Hunt for Ben Solo movie when it came to light. By dumb luck an emerging community of fans found me, and I have now earned their first individual Fan of the Week Award (image above). I couldn't be more flattered.

For 20+ years of my life I felt the need to keep my nerdiness to myself, and I think in this latter part of my life I'm just going to let it show. Of course I want my online presence to remain professional, but at the same time I am less anxious about the idea that a professional colleague or client will discover my nerdy side. Maybe I'll meet some fellow nerds along the way!

You can connect with me on Bluesky or Instagram (see profile), or by searching up The Hunt for Ben Solo fan campaign: #thehuntforbensolo #savethehuntforbensolo savebensolo.com





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