I am months away from my 40th birthday, and I have been thinking about turning the big 4 0 for awhile. Gird your loins, I’m about to word vomit up some feelings.

My mom died at the age of 40, and for the longest time, I thought I would be dead by 40 just like her. When I was in the throes of cancer treatment at the beginning of my 30s, I truly believed that  I was going to end up just like her – just minus the husband and 3 young kids.

My inner monologue would not shut the eff up about this. The thought would just bury itself in my brain, and my inner monologue would not let it quiet. I panicked a lot and felt doomed. All my life, I had been told I look like this woman I have barely any memories of, plus not only that. I talk like her and I walk like her.

Throughout my 20s and then 30s, I had basically all the same medical problems she did. Why wouldn’t I think I’d die just like her? When you are already an anxious person, adding cancer to the mix that was like adding gasoline. It took a lot of years and a lot of therapy to get this fatalist belief out of my head. It’s been almost 9.5 years since I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so that definitely helps too.

My mom’s life and death has been my medical road map. She’s been my answer to so many questions – why I got cancer and why I can’t have kids. For 33 years, I have felt like I have been walking with her by my side. With every surgery or treatment, I can say, “That’s not really a surprise. Mom also had that, or Mom dealt with that.”

So hooray, I am not going to die just like her. Now, I get to wrestle with the fact that I am about to live longer than my mother was able to do. My road map, it’s coming to an end, and it’s scary. How am I going to navigate the shit show that is my medical history without my road map?

This is the part about turning 40 that is scaring me and sends panicky waves washing over me. I have honest to God felt like I’ve been 40 for a good year already, probably because most of my coworkers are so much younger than me. Given the pretty large age difference and my illness, I have felt like I have zero in common with them, who all get along great. I just feel like the weird old lady.

Now that I am turning 40, I am grateful I never had any age goals set because I certainly would be disappointed come April, lol. I have never thought, “I am going to be married with 2 kids by the time I’m 40.” I just want to be happy, and boy oh boy, I do feel that way. It took 36 years for me to reach this stage but here I am, and I never want to leave it.

I enjoy my job, which actually feels like a career to me. I love my boyfriend, and I have a great group of friends. I snipped snipped snipped the awful pieces from my life, and I have filled it with calm happiness. I no longer deal with a cheating boyfriend or crazy stalker ex, or “friends” who try to one-up all your medical problems, like we’re in some competition for who has the worst life.

The older I have gotten, the people I have let in my inner circle are quality, not quantity. I am working out at the gym, and I am the strongest I have ever been. I’m heading into my 40s in good shape, both physically and mentally (knock on wood).  Now I have to wrap my head around what it really means and feels like to live a longer life than your own parent.

 Good thing for therapists, huh?