If you’re in your late 20’s, you’ve likely heard the phrase, “I feel like I’m in my early 20’s, until I actually hang out with people in their early 20’s and then I realize how wrong I was.”
For many in their 20’s, the idea of turning 30 is frightening. Like, don’t-look-outside-your-bedroom-for-fear-of-seeing-a-pair-of-eyes-looking-back-at-you, frightening.
But once you hit that threshold and become a member of the Dirty-30 club, it’s actually a huge relief.
The worst thing about turning 30 was being 29. This makes complete sense if you’re in your 30s.
— Larry Beyince (@DragonflyJonez) August 14, 2015
With the exception of the dreadful year that is being 29, turning 30 can actually be a positive stepping stone in your life. If you’re one of those who’s dreading getting older, take some advice from 31-year-old actress Olivia Wilde:
I find that most of the women that I really look up to, both women I know personally and women I admire from afar, are in their forties. So now, my thirties seem like this great opportunity to develop the experience and wisdom that will allow me to have an even greater decade in my forties. Thirties feel like a fertile ground. The twenties are for f—— up, that’s what you’re supposed to do, and your thirties are for using the knowledge you gained from said f—— up to make something, to put that experience toward something useful. And then I think your forties are an opportunity to enjoy what you’ve worked for.
At the end of your twenties, you realize you are inherently flawed, and that’s great, and that’s what makes you dynamic. For me, personally, it was around 27 when that kind of return to self took place, of living for myself, not living to keep up expectations. You know, I think you go from living for your parents to your peers, maybe back to your parents, maybe to your employer—You go through all these stages of living for other people, and I think at 30 you say, it’s my life and I live it for me.
Wilde’s outlook on getting older is so very spot on. We often identify getting older as losing something in our lives we could never get back.
In a sense that’s true.
While you won’t be able to go on a weekend bender without feeling sluggish on Monday, life becomes so much more fulfilled with love, family, friendship and knowledge you can only gain with age.
