THIRTY

I AM 30 YEARS OLD. 

Wow. 

OFFICIALLY, 30 years and two days.

This is a large milestone and my thoughts about it are muddled.  So because I'm either too lazy or unwilling to draft complete paragraphs about my feelings, you’re getting randomly listed bullet points:

·    I am totally cool with being 30.  When I ask how old a person is and they respond with, “oh, 32 or so” I think, oh so we are talking about a young person!

·    How on earth can I be 30?!?!  That’s oooooooold!

·    My twenties are over and that’s really weird if I think about it long enough.

·    I am now considered a thirty-something.  And THAT’S really weird if I think about it long enough.

·    I am having a tough time comprehending that someone can say “A, B & C happened 30 years ago” and that timeframe falls with MY lifetime.

·    It makes me think about how old and how young that makes everyone else in my life. 

·    In the back of my mind, I still quietly identify with the post-college aged group.  But more and more I look around and see that the differences between my life and theirs are eNORmous.

·    I wonder what my 16 year old self would think of me at 30.  What about my 21 year old self?  Did I know that a mortgage, marriage and a baby would be what 30 looked like?  What will my 50 year old self think looking back at me at 30?  What will I be proud of?  What will I wish I had done different?

·    It’s strange to think that my next “big” birthday is 40.

·    The other day my Grandpa said that “old” is however old you are plus 10 years, and I think he’s right. 

·    Next year I can look forward to celebrating the 10^th Anniversary of my 21^st Birthday!

·    Celebrating your own birthday after giving birth puts a whole new perspective on what my birthday means to my parents; I have a deeper insight into what they were going through the day I was born, that whole first year, followed by the next 29…

·    So far, 30 seems all right.  I’m in pretty good company with those who have celebrated the big 3-0 before me and those who aren’t far behind seem prepared to greet 30 with open arms and let it know who's boss!  Here’s to the next 30 being as wild and wonderful as the first 30!