When did hydration become such a focus?
What's this accelerated interest in skincare?
Why is the music too loud and yet I cannot hear anything?
Must be 30.
I have hit the next milestone, folks. It's the one I've been waiting for ever since I got into management at my job at "Jamie's" when I was twenty years old. The age where some geezer disrespectfully prompts you to share it, expecting you to say "nineteen" or "twenty-something", and you leave them in gasping disbelief when you say... "thirty". It's the age where people hesitate a bit before continuing to disrespect you. Finally; what I'm saying has some weight to it! For a few years, anyway, until I become irrelevant and nobody gets a chance to disrespect me because nobody's ever listening. Nothing lasts forever.
Some will say "your twenties are a blur" and "enjoy it while you can" when you're in your teens. I recall this one: "you'll be thirty before you know it!"
No, I wasn't!
That took forever! I'm exhausted. And relieved - now that I am thirty, I feel like I am finally home. THIS is my age, at long last. And I can mark nearly every year of my twenties by my incredibly signature birthday (among other things) that came along with it (I have been very fortunate). As for my teens? Well, they were shit, for the most part. Aside from all of the dark and fascinating family bother and emotional turmoil, The homework was terrible and by the time the quiz came around, I drew an absolute blank. And being even younger than that wasn't any better. I had no idea what was going on, which class to go to when - how school even worked - I just wanted to stay home where there weren't so many moving parts.
I don't miss it one bit.
What is it that people usually complain about when they romanticize being young? Ah, yes, the whole at-least-you-didn't-have-to-pay-bills argument. Well I have been young and I have made it to thirty and I will tell you something: I will gladly pay bills until the day I die if it means that I will live a life of my own choosing. Working where I would like to, for as many hours as / when I choose. Waking up and sleeping when I decide to, eating the foods I like to eat, fixing my own problems along the way. Here's a fun fact: being able to count on yourself is just the coolest thing in the world.
Forget being young! The best days are those that you can - and do - take control of. Make your own decisions. The days where you are safe and content / wild and free. Where you can be confident in your choices and just be happy that you can be yourself.
It was nice not paying bills when I was younger... but being in charge of yourself is one hell of a challenge. And very satisfying when you feel you've done right...
ReplyDeleteTye thing I miss the most about being younger is actually spending summers at my grandmother's. Not the whole summer but a few days here and there. I had the freedom and time to draw or write. I rode my bike from the saco/biddeford area to old orchard where my grandmother cleaned rooms. I'd make sure she had lunch and then I'd go to the arcade or help if there was heavy lifting.
To go with your talk of aging and perhaps how people think one is at whichever my age my grandmother always asked us a question, "do you feel (insert age)?"
I'd shrug and tell her I didn't know what it felt like before I turned whatever age and she'd laugh like there was some answer or joke I didn't get. She reminded me of a PG George Carlin who if you look up on YouTube will have you laughing during his getting old skits. I would always wonder what that question meant and even now (I just turned 37 on the 5th), is this what 37 feels like and did 36 feel like anything? Then I laugh and go about my day....