Brilliant or Insane?: celebrities

Top 5 reasons 50 is the new 30

I'm turning 50 this month, and I've been dreading it.

celebs turning 50, via: torontosun.com

That is, until I learned that it's so cool to be 50 that, if given the choice of what age to be forever, the average American would choose -- you guessed it -- half a hundred. This is according to survey results shared by Today.com.

Once I figured out that being five decades old is the in thing, I mulled over my own Top 5 reasons that 50 is really the new 30.

Lots of celebrities are 50, and look how good they look.
I'm young enough to have vices and old enough to tell my doctor to leave me alone about it.
I'm youthful enough to enjoy my kids but wise enough to know I don't need more.
At 30, I was an impatient teacher, who thought kids should sit quietly and work nonstop. At 50, I know that teacher-student rapport is as important as the curriculum -- more, in fact.
When I was 30, my gray hair made me look old. At 50, it makes me look distinguished -- at least that's what my wife tells me.

Mark Barnes is an education author and consultant and the publisher of Brilliant or Insane. Learn more about Mark on our Team page. Follow him on Twitter here.