The One Life Lesson from my 42nd Year

The answer to everything.

John Gorman
6 min readOct 4, 2024

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42. XLII. The Jackie Robinson year. (Or the Mariano Rivera year, if you’re a Yankee fan. I am not.)

It’s my birthday. For the past decade, every year I show up and espouse an endless scroll of deeply felt life lessons from the year that was — and some foreshadowing of my goals for the year to come.

And the truth is. Well … The truth is I was full of shit. I learned the wrong lessons and did just about none of what I set out to do. So I’ll try not to be romantic or profound this time. And there’s not 42 life lessons; there’s just one.

First, though, I will tell you about everything that’s gone wrong since turning 41.

In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb

This past year was amazing, but not for the reasons you think. Yes, I live on a tropical island two blocks from the ocean, for dirt cheap. Yes, I barely work. But, it ain’t all waves and oysters and dry martinis up in here.

I’ve been assaulted, scammed, swindled, ghosted, left for dead, disappointed, ruined, dumped, kicked out, and yelled at — all those things multiple times, sometimes multiples of those things at the same time.

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John Gorman
John Gorman

Written by John Gorman

Yarn Spinner + Brand Builder + Renegade. Award-winning storyteller with several million served. For inquiries: johngormanwriter@gmail.com