Happy Birthday to me! (Sing along everyone!)
Today I turn 37, and I shall be celebrating by hydrating and generally being mostly sensible because tomorrow I have an early start for a big Roller Derby game in Hemel Hempstead.
Honestly I’ve mostly enjoyed my 30s so far, lets hope I continue to enjoy the last 3 years and then I’ll be able to say it was a good decade overall. This was me seeing in my 30s.
I also got ID’d buying Prosecco a couple of weeks ago, so apparently I still look under 25, though the woman didn’t blink when she looked at my passport, so I secretly suspect that when that happens they have to ID a certain number of people a day and they picked me because I looked like a safe bet to actually carry some.
Anyway, while I await the army of Posties that they draft in especially to bring me cake and fine wines every year (not really, most years I get credit card statements, and maybe a Boden catalogue) I thought it would be an excellent idea to give you 37 reasons I think being in your 30s is way better than being in your 20s.
-
You know what suits you
After a good 15-20 years of wearing some godawful combinations of clothing, I now know what suits me and makes me feel good. I will not be buying A line shifts as they will make me look like a lampshade (though a few years ago I did still let a stylist talk me into one. Lets just say I was right, she was wrong). So what if almost all my wardrobe is made up of full (but not gathered) midi skirts and pencil skirts?
2. You don’t give a crap what suits you
That said, if I want to wear an A line shift because it’s comfortable and I like the print, I’ll wear it anyway, just probably not anywhere nice.
3. You know how to glam yourself up in under 10 minutes
Oh, I need to leave the house at 8:30am, gone are the days when I would be up at 7:30am. I have refined my make up routine and learned about berets and headscarves and these days I won’t be out of bed till 8:15.
4. Being a wiser person
Stop laughing. I might be an idiot, but I’m a far wiser idiot than I was in my 20s
5. Knowing when to go home
My mantra these days is “Never move on”. If you’re in a pub, and at 11:30pm everyone says “LET’S GO CLUBBING”, these days I go home. That way anything you did that was drunk and embarrassing in the pub is WAY out classed by all the drunk and embarrassing things that happened in the club later.
See, I told you I was wise.
6. Not being Cool and not caring
Not that I ever was cool. But I wanted to be cool. Now I know I’m not cool and I giggle at people wearing woolly hats when its 25 degrees and feel mild pity when I see teenagers trying to so hard to pretend they’re cool in front of their friends.
7. You can be a grown up if you want to
Now I’m in my 30s I certainly feel a lot more likely to be taken seriously if I were to, for instance, go to a meeting with my bank manager about taking out a business loan. At least I would if it wasn’t for my disturbing tendency to wear clothes with silly prints on them.
8. You can still be a kid if you want
Best thing about the modern world. You can buy Harry Potter print pyjamas in adult sizes and no one thinks you’re weird, much. And you can drink fizzy wine while you wear them, which you couldn’t if you were an actual kid. Best of both worlds.
9. You know how to cook a roast dinner
Yes, I knew that in my 20s too, but in my 30s I have learned its way easier to let someone else cook it for you and I know which pubs do excellent Sunday roasts.
10. No More Essays
If you went to University then you spent the first years of your 20s dealing with essay deadlines, if you did an MA then you had even more. I can never prepare things in advance, I’m a last minute kind of a gal, so I would just worry about them for weeks then stay up till 3am the day before they were due crying because the bloody Faerie Queen is written in indecipherable Old English, or because I honestly really had no idea what the hell Salvador Dali was on about in Un Chien Andalou and I don’t really think he did either.
My 30s have been blissfully essay free. I may have plans in the future that might involve them again, I’m not sure, but for now I’m enjoying the lack of essays.
11. You know when to give up on an idea
37 might be a tall order, 10’s probably enough, right? Come on folks, I’ve got stuff to do! The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day!
Maybe you can finish it off for me. If you’re in your 30s or above, what’s great about getting older?
