On being 30

 

I will soon be 30 years old and I am not happy about it. In fact I am dreading it and going away overseas to avoid family, friends and colleagues. Meanwhile many of friends from school and university are passing 30 too and they are relaxed about it and even celebrating or writing it off as just a number that means nothing. So why does it bother me so much and why have I been dreading it for the past few months?

 

It's just that I have always thought of myself as a really young person- I guess there is nothing new there- we all like to think of ourselves as being as young as ever until the morning after the night out or football match the day before. Also I had planned to retire by the time I am 30 and it looks as if I will have to delay that for a couple of years. Also its always a case of momentum with me- I have lived my 20s at a massively fast pace and achieved so much that keeping things going for another decade and following the last decade with something equally as good or better will be hard for me.

 

Reaching 30 is a major milestone in anyone's life. And yes there are many things I want to do and many things I need to do. I will have plenty of opportunity to get those things done. I don't have a girlfriend or a house or a car or many possessions in terms of DVDs, TVs, stereos and the like. I have focused during my 20s on academic and business success and made a lot of money so all of these things can be bought (with the exception of the girlfriendJ). Also I can indulge my other passions and lifestreams such as art and unorg and Coca-Cola collecting in my 30s before my brain has completely given up and my brain cells have ceased working.

 

30 is not such a big issue for men as women I feel since the biological clock is not ticking at the same fast rate for the modern male as it is for the modern women. Many people in their late 20s have not had the success that I have had, but they have picked up the organized symbols of life such as wives, children, houses, cars and careers.

 

At the end of the day, turning 30 is a great opportunity to assess your life and work out where you are and where you want to go rather than simply being midway through your twenties or similar. The opportunity for me to reorient myself from business to more personal matters was very welcome, and passing 30 finally gave me sufficient motivation to go out and buy a house and get a pension and do the other sad sorry things that are necessary for sensible people to undertake.

 

Some of my friends have told me that 31 is a difficult birthday too when the realization hits that you are into your 30s, but I don't think so, not for me, since I will have moved on so far from 29 to 31 that I will be a different, better person. Not quite as fast as I used to be, and a little more tired, but with the lifestyle to offset these losses and better for it.

 

 

Author: Simon Buckingham

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