This past birthday I officially moved from my “mid-twenties” to the oh-so-near-thirty “late-twenties.” The passing from one threshold to another moved me to notice how I, and my almost-thirty-years-old peers, differ from the other twenty-somethings. I found some of the changes interesting or funny and began keeping a mental list. Naturally, this is from a woman’s perspective, so I would love to hear what the almost-thirty man notices too. If you have some additions please comment below and share them! I can’t wait to hear how you know you’re almost 30.
How you know you’re almost 30:
-The majority of your friends are married or have sent out their ’save the date’ postcards.
-You look around at your male friends and realize most have gray hair speckling their heads or beards and baldness is no longer just a possibility, but part of their “look.”
-”Are you going to have kids?” “When are you starting a family?” or some other version of “When are you popping one out?” is a weekly, if not daily question you manage.
-You’d much rather watch Grey’s Anatomy on your DVR than go out on Saturday night (you mean get dressed up AND stay up late?!).
-You start to think that silver jewelry looks cheap and choose gold because it looks more sophisticated.
-Body fat starts to stick in very strange new places.
-You walk inside American Eagle Outfitters/Urban Outfitters/Abercrombie+Fitch/Forever 21 and realize you probably shouldn’t be shopping there any more.
-You over hear the most recent hires at work talking and realize that you are now one of the “old guys” with the “outdated ideas.”
-Know that Hershey’s Chocolate or any other kind of milk chocolate is for kids, instead craving the deepest darkest solid chocolate you can find.
-You look at the covers of the magazines at the checkout stand and honestly have no idea who some of the stars on the covers are.
-You don’t feel a day older than 16—just a little bit smarter with more money.
Hey, you are ticking the years away pretty fast. You have a while until you
are 30. Maybe at my age you just count only one year and that means 70
comes for me in less than a year. I loved all your comments, they were great. Loved your biking blog with all the beautiful flowers. If we survive
the next couple days we may still have pretty flowers. We are getting hot,
humid, windy, pouring rain weather until tomorrow. MI had lots of damage
yesterday and it may come again today. We cool off a little tomorrow. We
did not get the worst and neither did MIchele. We all have power also.
Steve did well yesterday. He came in third over all ages in a triathlon and
his partner was second. We were at Lake Erie on Sat with all of them.
It was a first for him. Love and miss you
Comment by Gram — June 9, 2008 @ 10:24 am
The week I turned 30, something wonderful happened. People started paying more attention to my ideas, and giving me more respect.
I suspect that something changed in my attitude and expectations and people responded to it. Too bad I hadn’t figured out how to do so earlier.
At any rate, I felt like I’d escaped the young adult ghetto.
Comment by Jessi — June 9, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
You have a few years, yet, to thirty. It’s a great list. As I was reading it, I though of another one:
– You get an invitation to your 10 year high school reunion!
Love, Deborah
Comment by Deborah — June 11, 2008 @ 11:12 am
Hmmm… I wonder how the “almost 50″ list compares to the “almost 30″ list, since I’m closer to 50 than you are to 30. Yikes! To think that when I was 12 I believed there was no life after 30 … not one worth living anyway. Just shows how wrong one can be!
If I have gained any wisdom in my years it is an understanding of exactly how relative, and somewhat meaningless, the number of candles on your cake is.
Comment by Laura — June 12, 2008 @ 5:37 am
Laura, okay, now you have your writing task for a future post on ourhousehaswheels.com! I look forward to seeing *your* list.
Jessi, whatever it takes to find our footing is a gift, no matter when it comes. Some people never find it! =)
Funny enough, my list proved to be dead-on, when my last single girlfriend called me this week to announce her engagement. She’s 28.
Comment by westi — June 28, 2008 @ 7:51 am