Someone gave me a card on my tenth birthday that read, “Congratulations on hitting double digits!”
I remember being caught off guard by the phrase.
I knew, of course, which birthday it was. I was still looking forward to getting older at that point, to gaining more responsibility, to hitting a “real age.” I was ready for the progression from the odd to the even, the complicated to the comprehensive, the quirky, idiosyncratic nine to the well-rounded, straightforward ten.
And yet, there was something about the idea of adding a digit that struck me. I was leveling up, reaching a milestone, no longer able to be contained by just the ones column, Common Core be damned. My bar mitzvah was still three years away but I was moving steadily toward adulthood and the respect and admiration that I knew would come with it. Continue reading “A Fifth of the Way to Gold”
