by Jennifer Maksymiak

Created on: August 08, 2009

The Joy of Turning 30

I recently hit the "Big 3-0", and I have to ask, what's the big deal? I will admit, I can remember my mom watching the TV drama "Thirty-Something" when I was younger and thinking to myself, "I hope I'm never THAT old", but the truth is, I've had some time to prepare for impending doom, and I think I'm coping with it pretty well.

I have to say, the one question I'm so tired of being asked is, "How does it feel to be thirty?". Of course, the person asking always seems to have a sarcastic smirk on their face, usually because they haven't faced this milestone yet. My answer is always the same: "No different than it felt to be twenty-nine years, three-hundred and sixty-four days old." The smirk usually disappears.

And you know what? It's the truth! Am I supposed to feel different? I'm only one day older than I was yesterday. And tomorrow, I'll only be one day older than I am today. This nice thing about time is that it moves slowly and consistently. The same can be said about aging. I did not wake up the morning of my thirtieth birthday and physically feel older. My attitude and outlook on life certainly did not change over the night. I don't feel that I accomplished anything new; the rite of passage of turning thirty. In truth, yes, I have a few more gray hairs, and yes, my body aches a little bit more, but no drastic transformations took place (as far as I can tell!).

I've always heard the expression, "Age is just a number". I guess, if you're stating the obvious, that is accurate. But, age is also an indicator of where you should be in your life; what you should have accomplished by now. Many people use age as a goal line-you can't reach said age unless you've completed all the required obstacles ahead of you. If you reach said age, and you haven't accomplished all the tasks you "should" have accomplished by that age, then have you failed? Should you feel poorly about yourself? Should you feel as if you're cheating? No way should you have attained thirty, or forty, or even fifty!

This is the way I see things: Every day is a new day. Every day is a day that has never been lived, never been written, never been recorded in the pages of history. This is your day, to do with it as you wish. How you spend it, the accomplishments you make, the failures you suffer, are completely up to you. If looked at from this perspective, then there are no pre-set obstacles, no tasks to accomplish, no rules of conduct.

So I ask you, as I ask myself every morning, what will my new page in history be? How will I break the pre-conceived notion that my life, and what I am "meant" to accomplish with it by a certain age, does not have a finish line? I wish I could tell you my answer, but the great thing is, I don't know it yet. What I do know, is that I can't wait to see forty.

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