Approaching 30....

[Katelyn]

I'm going to be 29 this month and I'm scared of being one year away from being 30.  I'm starting to fear losing my youthful looks and that my time on earth is looking more finite, and that I have to get my act together in terms of what I want to do in this world.  In addition, I don't feel that I have lived life like many other people in that I haven't nearly gone to as many parties, haven't had nearly as many romantic relationships, friends, etc... as other people, so I feel like I haven't lived my 20's.  Anyone here remember how they felt at 30?

[Cindy]

Ah not sure what the problem is. I'm approaching 60 and the clock does not stop. Live your life and enjoy.

Just do what you want and relate to people in a friendly and nice way. Guess what they will relate to you.

Cindy

[justmeinoz]

Come back and tell us about it in 20 years!

At 30 I was getting used to the idea of being a father, which was awesome if scary; and building our first house, which was incredibly frustrating.

Seriously though, the best is really ahead.  You 30's are much the same as your 20's except you realise how many hangovers, STI's, psycho ex's etc you missed out on too.  You get to make a better job of things because you have that much more experience behind you. 

Karen.

[Sephirah]

Since I'm 31, I remember it very well, lol.

It didn't actually feel a whole lot different from being 29.

Saying that though, the first ever time I went to buy something alcoholic, I got asked for ID (this was like only a couple of weeks ago), so I'm not too stressed by it.

Age is just a number. I think the hype is worse than the event.

[JungianZoe]

When I turned 30, it was 2 months after I'd quit my job to go back to school.  I walked into an introductory course and immediately felt like one of the "creepy old people"  I remember from my first time through college (got my first bachelor's in 2001).  But I started tutoring during my second semester and quickly found that everyone mistook me for being 22 or 23, so I didn't feel so weird after that.   Three years later I started HRT, and one of my long-time students, someone I tutored through most of her psychology program, told me that I was beginning to look younger.  I went full time about three weeks after her comment and that's when I told her that hormones were probably softening out my features and might have something to do with my "age reversal."   Then I also gained 25 pounds and that rounded out the sunken cheeks I had from years of anorexia.

Basically, I realized that age is meaningless.  It's more about how people perceive you than what the actual number is.  I'll be 34 in just over two months and I'm still carded for everything that requires carding, except in places where they know me.  I even got carded buying an 18+ video game for my brother back at Christmas.  Talk about strange...

[Ann Onymous]

When I was about to turn 30, I had finally gotten around to finishing the undergrad work...I remember that the notion of TURNING 30 was something that had seemed such a big deal just a few years earlier, especially as I sat in classrooms surrounded by these 18-20 year old kids. 

Then 40 became the scary number...

Zoe is largely correct...my comment has become one of 'age is an issue of mind over matter...if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.'  Despite that, I did pretty much quit celebrating birthdays...now they are just anniversaries of the 29th 

[Nero]

In addition, I don't feel that I have lived life like many other people in that I haven't nearly gone to as many parties, haven't had nearly as many romantic relationships, friends, etc... as other people, so I feel like I haven't lived my 20's. 

No matter how much you partied and how many sex partners you had, it never feels like enough. I certainly had my share and I still feel like that. There's always someone who got more. But think about all the people who got married and settled down with kids right after high school, then end up divorcing and making up for it in middle age. There's nothing inherently special about any decade of life more than any other. Maybe your 30s is your time to party.

[Tamaki]

I can really relate, 30 was really hard for me. I was no longer young and in my 20's and was supposed to be grown up and responsible. I felt like it was the start of the downhill slide. Up to this point in my life I was not "worldly" and wondered when my life was going to begin.

In retrospect it was much ado about nothing.  If I could go back and be a particular age forever it would be early to mid thirties. Physically and mentally it was a great age for me. Once I hit forty it was like, what do you mean I middle aged? Now I don't worry about it. I'm getting to be me and I'm going to enjoy every day that I can.

[JulyaOrina]

I am thirty.  It's very much like your twenties, but the second you turn thirty there is this moment of clarity.  In it you realize that age is subjective, that music sounds better if you can still hold a conversation while it's on, that comfy shoes rock, and that losing your metabolism sucks!  However, you also realize that you now have the wisdom of all the mistakes of your youth behind you (that were written off as inexperience); and that now, no matter what you do, it will be viewed as a conscience choice when you make new bad choices...

I'm just kidding (kind of).  The only difference between being twenty-nine and turning thirty, is 24 hours.  You will be who you are, and will be expected to be who you were the day before turning thirty.  May your birthday be a happy one! And, may there be a road!

[Wild Flower]

I am 19 yrs old, and for me I came to the realization pretty recently, "You'll never grow old but forever young. You may age in the mirror, but the appearance won't matter (I put on Retin A by the way, and sunscreen inside the house too... and I hardly go outside) But anyways, I don't want aging to have any effect on my life and how I live it".

I want to feel like this at 30 years old, and I want to feel like this at 40, 50, and 60 years old. Life is worth living, and the other alternative is dying. Which is not exactly what I want to do, since I don't really believe there's an after life so I hope to enjoy today and tomorrow. But if there is an afterlife then it will be there waiting for me, and I can put that off until another time.

Aging doesn't scare me, but the health effects worries me, but I'll survive.

[Hikari]

I know age is mainly just a number, and it is about perception of youth and such, but that still doesn't stop me from being very scared of the number 30. Odd, how insecurity is like that. I also set it as the arbitrary age I would like to transition before, so something tells me I will be making up for lost time even more so than most.

Not to mention, that I really have been with the same person since I was 18 and I average 1 party a year. So, I really do feel like I have missed out a bit, as if other people are doing more living than me, but I am not sure that i would really want more partners anyway(though more parties would probably be nice).