As inconceivable as it is to me given how young and energetic I feel, I turned 50 on August 3! I invited all my best friends and family from the Grindaverse to celebrate this momentous event in style.

Over 100 showed up! We first held the FJ Labs Summer Retreat July 21-25.

July 26-31: Racquet Sports Extravaganza

I then hosted a racquet sports extravaganza July 26-31. As many of you know, my family has a long history of passion for tennis and racquet sports in general. My uncle Jean-Noel was junior world Champion, winning the French Open junior. He was the best French tennis player of his generation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, notably representing France in the Davis Cup. His son Nalle was a top 200 ATP player. He won the NCAA indoors for UCLA as their number 1 player. He then became the top French padel player and a top 100 padel player in the world. He now runs Padel X, one of the best padel clubs in Florida. My father was also a fan of tennis and padel which inspired my brothers and me to start practicing at a young age and become avid players. More generally my entire extended family and most of my friends play racquet sports.

To assuage my love of the game, I built the first red clay tennis court in Turks, the first two padel clubs of the country, and a pickleball court to complement the existing hard court.

Despite the 5 courts, all courts were busy the entire time and we had a blast playing tons of competitive matches.

We interspersed kiting in between padel, tennis, and pickleball sessions leading to a super intense week of sports.

When not playing padel and tennis, I reconnected with my video gaming buddies for fun sessions of Age of Empires 4.

For the formal festivities, I separated the birthday into three nights which I themed completely differently to create variety with distinct activities every night. Ahead of the trip, I shared the attached style guide with everyone.

August 1: Here be Dragons

Hic sunt dracones. Those words – Latin for “Here be dragons” – were carved into ornate globes of copper and ostrich egg many hundreds of years ago, hinting at what lurked in the unknown parts of the world. Likewise, maps and atlases of the time were illustrated with sea monsters, mermaids, and other mythical creatures that were said to populate those distant latitudes.

My life has been one of discovery and charting into uncharted territory, as such I felt the theme apt for the first day of my multi-day birthday celebration on August 1. As I told my mother, this year she could not come to Burning Man with me, so I brought Burning Man to her.

It was an amazing opportunity to catch up with my childhood friends and see all my friends and family.

The night was epic with a hypnotist, acrobatic routines, and lots of dancing!

A very friendly dragon made an appearance around midnight.

My friends Talia and Margarita followed with amazing dance shows.

I was even lit on fire, which required me to remove every single hair on my body, before doing a small acrobatic routine for my friends.

August 2: Temple Night

The second night of my birthday celebration was also epic. Matt Cooper blew our mind with his mentalism. It felt like he was literally reading our minds. The shibari demonstration was beautiful and Temple night was unforgettable.

August 3: A Golden Jubilee

For our third night of revelry, we mixed two classic events into a singularly epic birthday party. Originally it was to be a White Party, signifying a sense of rejuvenation and new beginnings in the spirit of Forever Young.

But what’s a party without a little innovation and imagination? So, we blended in some major bling to make this party a Golden Jubilee inspired by the traditional 50th birthday celebration for kings and queens. We all looked epic in white and gold!

We had a huge sit-down dinner inside the tent we set up on the tennis court.

Sonic Butterfly played beautiful sets during dinner and I even joined in on playing it for my guests!

My friends and family put together this wonderful tribute video which we played during dinner.

For dessert, they brought me two very appropriate cakes, one in the shape of a padel racquet and one celebrating Forever Young. 

I then shared a few of my thoughts. Here is a transcript of my speech.

“The last few days have been an extraordinarily fun tribute to everlasting friendship, family, love, and freedom. It has proven to all of us that the fabric of the universe is unconditional love. As sad as I am that this year my mother cannot join us at Burning Man as she did last year, we basically brought the Playa to her.

I realize that we are extraordinarily privileged to be here, and I am forever grateful to be able to call you my friends. I would not be the man I am today if it was not for the role you played in my life and continue to play to this day. There is magic in the world, and I am happy that we are co-creators of the tapestry of life.

A few of you have asked me what my take on aging is. Upon reflection, I would like to share a few words from my favorite poem.

These are powerful words to live by. Let me complement them with another line from another one of my favorite poems which also illustrates my thinking on aging:

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

And now please join me. Raise your glasses and repeat after me: Forever Young!”

Exhausted but happy, I set upon journeying to Revelstoke for month of revelry and recovery before Burning Man.

Here’s to the next 50 years!