The Thing about Thirty

Is that it’s not much different from your twenties, except you’ve got a baggageful of added confidence. It’s the kind of swagger and knowing smile one gets from experience. You learn to tune off to things and people that don’t matter, and you realize, damn, being thirty is not bad, in fact it’s a pretty amazing thing! It’s the point where you’ve gained enough perspective to know which things has value and yet you’re still young enough to be vibrant and active and adventurous with your choices. You can still get away with being silly at times.

At thirty, I’ve learned to push things when it’s necessary. No, goodness is not enough in life. You also need to assert yourself to get heard and get what you want.
At this age, when someone guesses my age to be late twenties. I beam, it’s no longer nature that’s working here, it’s how you take care of yourself.

When I walk on streets and someone stares (must be the red hair), I look back with either a smile or an arched brow depending on my moods. It’s okay to be rude to rude people. And I’ve learned to speak my mind if it means I’d be able to sleep better and without irritation. Sometimes there’s no avoiding confrontations and arguments, and at thirty, I’ve had my fair share of practice.

I’ve been tasked to guide three of my family’s younger members to their dreams. And it’s such a buzz, the possibility of enabling them, of helping them find themselves and help them draw out their goals. At thirty, I’m still young enough to laugh with them, to “get” their concerns about their budding romances, their need for nice things, their preoccupation with appearances, but I am old enough for them to listen to my advice, to tell my own life’s lessons, and to scold them gently when needed.

I feel happier, more sure of myself now, more adventurous even than a decade ago. The twenties do seem like the age where we want to get everything, experience everything. It’s more about the quantity not quality. A decade later and I’m firmer with what I want to live through and walk away from those I can live without.