Many people think “ssangpal-nyeondo” (literally “double-eight year”) means 1988. It doesn’t. It actually refers to year 4288 in the Dangi era, which is AD 1955, a misunderstanding born of mixing two different calendar systems. The Gregorian year we use counts from an estimated year of Jesus’s birth; the Dangi era counts from the year Dangun is said to have founded Gojoseon. Thinking about how the years we take for granted are really tallied from some chosen moment, I wonder whether age is an extension of the same kind of reckoning. Counting from the year we were born is, in a sense, just another calendar.
Besides “the year 2020,” I could tack on other numbers. This year, for me, is the 34th year of life, the 1st year of being a father, the 4th year with a driver’s license, and the 8th year as a developer. We often use years of experience as a rough gauge of how seasoned someone is. Of course it is never absolute. Still, we tend to infer whether someone is still a junior with little under their belt, or a senior from whom we can expect a certain depth, by how long their history runs. Job postings that append, almost as an afterthought, “n+ years in a related field” rest on the same habit.
Following that line of thought, I ask whether I have ripened enough for “life, year 34.” What should competence look like at this stage? Do I understand myself well enough? Have I built up enough knowledge, common sense, and experience? How much vision and conviction do I hold for what comes next? I scatter a little regret and a little comfort across the desk and look back at who I am.
I remind myself that merely being kept alive is not the same as truly living. Even kimchi deepens with the time it is left to mature. This year, just beginning to find its flavor, is AD 2020, Dangi 4353, and the 34th year of a life that is still learning how to ripen.