Something About Turning 30

From a very young age I can remember wanting to grow older. As a child, I wanted to be a teenager. Teens had more freedom, or so I thought. Then I wanted to turn sixteen so I could drive.

The next milestone was eighteen; the year I would officially be an adult. The morning of my eighteenth birthday I was certain that in the mirror I would see a woman looking back at me. Much to my disappointment, the same girl I met there the night before was the same girl standing before me that morning.

Twenty-one was next on the list, and then twenty-five. Even with the ability to drink (legally) at twenty-one and the lowered car insurance at twenty-five, I still didn’t feel like an adult. Not only did I not feel like one, but others considered me to be a kid too. “Oh you’re still a kid,” they would say.

That all changed when I turned thirty. Something about being in my thirties made me feel like a grown up. I even remember making the statement, “I’m an adult now.” No longer during conversations with people older than me, was I perceived as a kid. Instead, they considered me to be on level playing ground with them.

It was also that year that I began to look back on life, what all I had accomplished and what I had not. Where I had fallen short and where I had succeeded. Not only did I assess my outward accomplishments, but also who I was in general.

Up to that point I had been treating life much like a game; primarily by making hasty decisions and running from problems, which I was good at. But something about turning thirty caused me to realize that life wasn’t a game, and that it was time I grew up. It was time to take life seriously, and stop running every time things got hard.

Even though now, a few years later, I still behave like a kid at times and occasionally make poor decisions, at least I can finally say that I’m a grown up. Because of that, I’ve enjoyed my thirties.

But now forty is creeping up, a little too soon for my liking. I wonder how grown up I’ll feel then. Perhaps those will be the best years of my life, or maybe I’ll just get (more) gray hairs.

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This post is in response to The Daily Post prompt: All Grown Up

When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?