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Turning fifty is not a crisis.
It is a reckoning.
And it changed how I see everything.

In this year end episode of Confessions of a Gen-X Mind, I reflect on the moments that quietly reshaped my life at midlife. What began as recalibration became a year of closure, clarity, and unexpected forward motion.

I talk honestly about starting the year single and how difficult it was to truly move on while a past marriage still lingered emotionally. When my ex finally moved away, that chapter closed in a real and lasting way. That closure changed how I dated, how I showed up, and why meeting Alice felt different from anything that came before.

This episode also explores neurodivergence and self understanding at midlife. After years of therapy and reflection, I share why my upcoming formal ASD and ADHD assessments matter to me. Not as labels, but as medical documentation that brings clarity, protection, and the ability to advocate for accommodations in life and work. I do not experience neurodivergence as a disability. I experience it as a superpower once it is understood.

I reflect on the generational shift that arrives faster than anyone prepares you for. Parents age. Roles reverse. Stories get shared around holiday tables about falls, injuries, and the quiet realization that we are now the adults in the room. I lost my father in 2022, and Alice lost both of her parents within the last year. Grief, responsibility, and gratitude now coexist.

Love is part of this story too. This episode follows a midlife relationship built on steadiness rather than fantasy. We navigate real health challenges together, and we end the year engaged. On New Year’s Eve, we will be traveling to New Orleans to celebrate and mark this moment with an engagement photo shoot in the French Quarter.

There is also a late arriving footnote. After avoiding COVID throughout the worst of the pandemic, Alice and I finally caught it together in Las Vegas. Not dramatic. Just fitting.

This is not a highlight reel.
It is a recalibration.

If you are navigating midlife, relationships, neurodivergence, aging parents, or the sense that everything shifted while you were busy living, this episode is for you.

Fifty does not feel like the end.
It feels like standing exactly where I am, with clarity.