Re-inventing Ones-self

          The older I get the more I reflect on the past. That may be a product of age or something in my character; it matters not what it is, just that it is what it is. I know I am in the autumn of my life; the question is am I in the early fall of a warm September or late fall rushing toward Christmas and where do I go from here? 

          I do not see myself starting a new career as a brain surgeon. I do not care to travel to strange lands as an archaeologist. I can look into a mirror right here and see all the old bones I care to see. There is no manual for old age and I would love to write one, but all I have is my own experience so far and that is I fear not enough to begin writing a manual about and yet it just dawned on me that that is exactly what I am doing at this moment. No, wait, I think I am writing more of a memoir that may only end when I do. 

          I have read articles lately about people re-inventing themselves as they go through life. I tried that a few times, but was never successful because when I applied for a new job, interviewers always asked what I had been doing before. When I told them I had been working in electronics they would say, "That is what you should go back to now because you will at some point in the future." In that respect they were correct because no one would hire me. Many successful re-inventors start their own businesses, but I was not very successful when I did that. 

          One thing I would like to do is write code for computer apps. I can look at source code on Google or Internet Explorer and figure out why something I want to display on my web pages does not display properly, but that is fixing a problem, not creating an app. Writing a thousand or two thousand lines of code is beyond me. I have worked on three programming courses in the last three years, but by the time I get through a month of daily study I stall out, crash and burn. I get just so far and then nothing works, nothing makes sense and I cannot even look back in my notes to find out how I did something just a week before. 

          In one sense, I suppose I am re-inventing myself day by day because I am getting pretty good at drinking beer.