I DON’T REMEMBER WHEN IT FIRST OCCURRED EVEN TO ASK.
I could have been in the middle of something or on my way to someplace or thinking any sorts of things. But it lingered like indentations on the skin after sitting in the grass for too long, like a sunburn, like the smell of chlorine. How old was I in days?
The average human lifespan—75 years—amounts to 27,375 days, which sounds like too many and not enough. I think once I get past 365, my ability to comprehend any number of days gets fuzzy. Minutes, hours, and days shape our lives in good ways and bad. For the most part, its mathematical nature remains the same. But seconds can stretch into infinity; years can dash by without warning. It can feel thrilling, daunting, or frustrating to reach a certain age.
At my most cynical, I can twist numbers into hollow, useless things, reductive and irrelevant. But in a world mired with confusion and entropy, I choose to believe in them anyway.
Today, I am 10,000 days old.
It’s a marker of time as irrelevant as anything else. But I find there is a weight to it, a breadth. Here are some facts about the number 10,000 pulled from Wikipedia and other places on the internet:
In scientific notation, it's written as 10⁴.
A myriagon is a polygon with 10,000 sides.
In classical history, a myriad is a unit of 10,000.
On September 30, 1951, American astronomer A.G. Wilson discovered an asteroid at the Palomar Observatory in California. It's a main-belt asteroid, meaning its orbit is between Mars and Jupiter. Initially listed as 1951 SY, it was later renamed 10000 Myriostos, Greek for "ten-thousandth." Myriostos honors all the astronomers throughout time and space who have contributed to the discovery and categorization of asteroids and minor planets.
"The Land of 10,000 Lakes" is the nickname for Minnesota, though the state derives its actual name from the Dakota phrase mní sóta, meaning "clear water." Minnesota is believed to be the home to some 14,000 lakes, give or take, depending on various definitions and sources.
The Clock of the Long Now is a mechanical monument designed to keep accurate time for 10,000 years. According to The Long Now Foundation's website, the clock "offers an enduring symbol of our personal connection to the distant future." The Long Now Foundation purchased land at the top of Mount Washington near the Nevada-Utah border to house it. The clock is still under construction.
The number 10,000 pops up in lots of different places: the TV game show, The $10,000 Pyramid, the Tool album 10,000 Days, "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard" is one of Harvard University's most popular fight songs. In several east Asian countries, the phrase "ten thousand years" is used to wish someone a long life. In Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu refers to "10,000 Things" as a term denoting all of reality. Dan + Shea and Justin Bieber have a song called "10000 Hours." The King James Version of the Bible makes 52 references to ten thousand.
The year 10,000 will be the first year in the Gregorian calendar with five digits. This has sparked concerns that contemporary computer systems won't work past this year due to the extra digit, known as the Y10K problem.
10,000 days is a lot of time. In these days, I ate many breakfasts; some days, I didn't eat anything. I slept through some; I held on to every hour of others. There were days I dreaded, days I reveled in, days I watched pass me by. I've done the same thing day after day, but no two are alike. Some days I thought I knew who I was, and then I changed my mind.
Here are 75 images and 25 videos from some of my 10,000 days of life.
