The Unavoidable Dreaded Thirties

When I turned eighteen I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and I had a pretty heavy duty drinking session.

Then I turned twenty one and I realised I'd been wrong three years before, and actually THAT was the coolest thing ever. So I threw a big party and had a heavy duty drinking session. Can you see a pattern in my birthday celebrations yet...?

As the years progressed and I got older I revelled in my twenties. I made great friends, had great times, had a few "interesting" relationships and made some fantastic memories. But as my twenties slowly marched their way along I started to realise that my thirties were fast approaching and it wasn't a realisation that I enjoyed coming to...

The worry started to set in a little bit, to the point that on the day of my wedding I was incredibly happy that I would forever be able to say that I got married in my twenties. I don't know why, but that mattered to me. I found myself returning to the days of Adrian Mole and when it came to consideration of my age throughout my twenty ninth year I suddenly listed myself as twenty nine and a half, or twenty nine and three quarters, that sort of thing...! Sad but true!

My thirtieth birthday itself fell on a Tuesday night rather annoyingly. So I did what any self respecting person clinging to their twenties would do, I booked the Tuesday and Wednesday off work and made plans to (can you guess?) have a heavy duty drinking session!

On the day itself I refused point blank to admit my accension into my thirties until exactly twenty five minutes past five that afternoon. After all as this was the time at which I was born into this world, up to that time on my birthday I was still "technically" in my twenties...! Thankfully when the dreaded time finally arrived I was sat in a pub with some lovely friends ensuring a steady supply of red wine. Though at exactly twenty five past five I was handed a gin and tonic, as I had to change drink to mark the point apparently... All good in my book, and the support (read mild mockery) of the friends with me was hugely appreciated so thank you guys!

As my birthday fell midweek the birthday "party" itself was planned for the following Saturday, and I figured this was a good thing as it'd give me some time to adjust to my new status of being in my thirties. Of course the wonderful people I have in my life had some lovely words of wisdom for me.

"Wow, you're like, old now!"
"It won't hit you until you fill in a questionaire and you have to tick the 30-35 box..."
"Soooo, now your thirty and married it'll be kids next then?"
"Thirties, yeah I remember turning thirty, it's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall downhill from now on!"

I love my friends and family...

To sum up my birthday party let's just say champagne, great food, plenty of friends and jaeggertrains... So in other words it was fun!

So now the celebrations are all out of the way how do I feel about entering this new phase of my life? Well, I'm happily married with a good job and great friends, and plenty of people would kill to have that at my age or older so in that sense it's all good. But still, there is that sense of "oh good god, WHY?!"

I'm sure I'll adjust and get used to it, but I get the horrible feeling that it'll happen roughly when I'm thirty nine and nine tenths, just in time for the next freak out...