I just logged into the LA Times online to get my daily fix of the news, and this headline screamed at me:

Sarah Palin turns 45.

In a few months I turn 45 and now Sarah Palin is 45. We’re the same age. It’s remarkable to me because here’s a woman, who yes, I will give her the credit of having worked hard and has progressed to a powerful position, but looking at what she accomplished in her early years, and I’m talking about high school and college, and seeing where she has stumbled to, it quite amazing to me. I compare that to Obama, who is a year or two older than me, and look at his accomplishments.

Yesterday I was emailing someone about the path we take in life, and how what we think is a path to a goal might take us in a totally different direction than what we think is a goal. If anyone looked at Palin’s life in her mid 20s would have never guessed she could have been mayor, let alone governor or close enough to be Vice President. The path she had just wouldn’t have fit that model, yet it did happen for her. If you looked at Obama’s path, it was prime for going up the corporate ladder, considering the high end college he went to. Yet, considering the tenor of the country, no one would dare to dream he could be President. A black guy with a funny sounding name that didn’t fight in the civil rights movement didn’t have a change of becoming President, despite what college we went to.

It was just a few years ago, and I mentioned this many times during the campaign, there was the ABC TV show with Geena Davis about the first woman President and the scenario drawn up for this to occur was so similar to Sarah Palin’s selection to Vice President (woman outside of Washington, from a small/outsider state, picked more for gaining the woman’s vote in the election rather than qualifications) it was scary. Even by Labor Day of last year, a good part of the country might have said they would vote for Obama, just to make the pollsters happy, but many felt McCain had a good shot at winning. It wasn’t until we got a good look at Palin and McCain’s action during the banking meltdown did many realize a black guy in the White House, especially one who knew what he was doing, wasn’t such a bad idea.

What has struck me as I march slowly to 45 is I look back and wonder what I might have done by this time if I had the chance. That has been chewing at me for months. I have some heady people to look at. Back in the day I worked part time at comic book shop in San Diego and worked along side Ed Brubaker and Ray Feist. I see them from time to time when I’m in San Diego, mostly at Comicon, but we all wanted to do the same thing, become creative and have our creativity sustain us. Ray hit it big first, then Ed did and I kind of feel like the runt of the litter. When I compare my life to theirs I feel terrible because I’m nowhere near the level they are.

When I feel this way, and it happens a lot, I have to look back at where I was, which is what the Palin turning 45 did for me. We don’t know our path and where that’s going to take us. As much as I hated the past two years and what happened to me, when I look back and think where I was, or where I would have been if I hadn’t started down that rocky path, I don’t think I would have had the tools needed to carve out my own path now. It’s like, and man I hate saying this, the life of Palin. When I think about it, where was a woman whose path didn’t seem to look like it would end up at the place she’s at now, but she got opportunities and she took them. Right or wrong, like her or not, at 45 she’s in a position where she could be a player in the Republican party and has a good shot of running for President if she wants. Yes, I’m sure many will ridicule her (and I would be one of them) but there are so many instances in history where a person has taken to center stage and stumbled by the glare of the lights and the media, only to slink away in disgrace and come back years later stronger, wiser and ultimately triumphant. It’s the perfect American story and while many may want to discount Palin, there are enough people that admire her that a comeback for her, and a resounding acceptance comeback, isn’t too far fetched.

So yes, I cringe at thinking Palin is the same age I am. Yes I may not want her back in the spotlight, but I recognize life can take you on crazy turns. If there’s a path you want, you make it and there isn’t a set way of getting where you want to go.