Sure I was born in 1969, so you would think I was born in the year of the rooster, or the cock as I like to say, according to the Chinese Calendar. I went under the assumption I was a cock until my mid 30′s when I actually looked up the Chinese calendar. Turns out I’m a monkey.

We in the west have paid little attention to the Chinese New Year, instead relying on the place mats in our favorite restaurants for our Chinese astrological information. It is vein of us to assume the Chinese calendar falls exactly where the western calendar begins and ends; we are wrong in doing so. The Chinese calendar is based on a lunisolar system. Clearly the new years will not start on the same date as the Gregorian calendar we use. That being said, 1969 is generally thought of as the Year of the Cock. However, the Year of the of the Cock did not start until February 17, 1969. On February 9, 1969, the day I was born, we were still in the last waning days of the Year of the Monkey.

Of course, the date for Chinese New Year falls scatter shot around my birthday meaning the year can change before or after. In 2008 it landed before so we are now in the Year of the Rat which started on February 7, or two days ago. It is fitting then that I embrace this zodiac year along with the realization that in one year from today I will be forty years old.

And that’s just it, instead of whimpering for the next year, I intend to embrace my age. I don’t feel that old anyhow. How’s that ad with Dennis Hopper go? “… the 30′s are the new 20′s, the 40′s are the new 30s…” Or something like that, I’m paraphrasing. Either way, it’s very true. So I decided to look at things this way, the next year is all about me. If you think about it, I am, in a sense, in my fortieth year already. So, starting today, will be a yearlong celebration of me culminating in my fortieth birthday.

I’m not sure how I intend on celebrating me as of yet. It will no doubt involve public as well as internal moments. Mostly I think it will just be me reminding everyone that the whole year is about me. Everything they do is about me. I’m sure it will wear thin soon but it doesn’t matter. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about me.

Welcome to the year of the rat, the year of me.