🌟  The Day Everything Changed

Until I turned 50, I had what most would call “the good life.”

A loving family, a successful career, financial security. I’d built it all carefully over decades, brick by brick. I thought I had it figured out.

Then, like a house of cards in a hurricane, it all came crashing down.

The divorce papers … the empty side of the bed … a friend’s funeral … the pink slip. My child’s confused eyes asking why Dad didn’t live here anymore. Each blow landed before I could recover from the last, until I found myself on my knees, gasping for air in a life I no longer recognized.

⬇️  The Descent

What followed wasn’t a movie montage where the hero dusts himself off and conquers the world in 90 minutes.

This was real life …  and it was brutal.

⚡️ Major depression that made getting out of bed feel impossible

⚡️Complex PTSD from trauma stacked on trauma

⚡️Burnout so severe I forgot why I’d ever cared about quarterly reports

⚡️Anorexia that left me a shadow of my former self, literally and figuratively.

“Give it a few months,” I told myself. “You’ve overcome challenges before.”

Months turned to years. Years spent in therapists’ offices, support groups, and the darkest corners of my own mind. There were days I wasn’t sure I’d make it back at all.

🌱  The Long Road Back

But here’s the thing about rock bottom …  it’s solid ground to build on!

Slowly, painfully, I clawed my way back to something resembling normal. Not the old normal … that Pete was gone forever. But a new starting line.

🌅  Starting Over at 55

Now I find myself here, at 55, essentially starting from scratch.

The world I’m returning to isn’t the one I left.

🔹 Technology has leapt forward

🔹 The job market speaks a language I’m still learning

🔹 Dating apps? … Cryptocurrency? … AI assistants?

It’s like waking up in a foreign country where everyone else knows the rules.

But I’m here … I’m alive … and I’m ready to figure out what comes next.

❓ Why “Pete Is Back”?

This site is my chronicle of starting over in midlife. The victories (landing that first interview!). The defeats (what do you mean my resume needs to be “ATS-optimized”?). The absurdities of learning TikTok at 55. The unexpected joys of discovering who you are when everything you were has been stripped away.

I’m sharing this journey anonymously as “Pete” because honesty requires safety. There are things I need to say, experiences I need to process, that require the freedom anonymity provides. My story is unique, but I suspect the themes are universal for many of us navigating the second half of life.

🤝  Join Me

If you’re rebuilding after loss, pivoting after setback, or simply curious about one man’s journey back from the brink … welcome 🙂. This is a real-time account of what it takes to rebuild a life from the ground up in your 50s. Pete is back. He’s different. He’s scarred. But he’s moving forward.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough.