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For me, life just keeps getting better. My 30's were better than my 20's, and my 40's was a fabulous time and better than my 30's. I am currently 49 and not afraid of entering my 50's. The only thing I miss from my college days and early 20's was the cheaper concert tickets and access to concert backstages. I was very lucky to be young for those first Elvis Costello tours! My current boyfriend is jealous that I got to see Jaco Pastorius and all those other bands perform... and in small venues too.
My boyfriend's mom is in her early fifties, remarried to a terrific man and she is also currently going to art school. I think that as long as one is happy and also diligent about maintaining ones health and fitness (don't forget the sunblock!!), life can easily keep getting better.
I'm interested to hear which decade people thought was better: their 20's or their 30's.
I'm a woman in my early 30's. Turning 30 for me was a huge milestone, and a birthday marked with significant anxiety. First of all, when I was 29, a lot of things happened that year that were big changes. One was that we moved halfway across the country to DC, where neither of us had ever been before and where we knew no one, so it was a big change for me. Another was that at 30 I had just made a huge career change decision--changing careers for the third time. It was a decision that involved a lot of soul searching and anxiety. Also, around 30 I finally became aware that my husband and I had different views about having children. I realized that while I always figured that I wanted children, by age 30 I never felt any desire for them, while DH was ready to start reproducing. This mismatch in our desire for children was creating extreme anxiety for me (and still does).
I was anxious about turning 30 for about a year beforehand. But after I turned 30, much of that anxiety disappeared. However, so far, I feel that my 20's were a better time overall than my 30's have been thus far.
The reason is that your 20's are a time of exploration--trying new things, figuring out who you are, etc. It was definitely a decade of exploration for me. I moved a bunch of times, tried out four different cities, tried out a bunch of different careers, met my hubby, and tried to find myself. I'm still at the finding myself stage, so that is still ongoing in my 30's. I feel like in your 30's people expect you to be settled, and we are definitely not settled at all. We're still nomadic, have no idea where (what city) we're going to settle down in, and we're still renters. We don't have kids and don't plan on having any for at least a few more years.
I had more friends in my 20's, compared to 0 now. I have more life experience now, but I had a lot more fun in my 20's, which I really miss.
I'm interested to hear about which decade you thought was better.
Wow....I can understand completely what you are experiencing. I just turned 30 last Decmeber and was not looking foward to it at all!
My Fiance and I have been together for almost 8 years.....still not married but I am not in any big hurry, obviously. I have not really had that desire to have kids even though I know I only have a few good years left to decide to, my Fiance said that he is fine either way though.
We just moved to FL and started in a new career path....still law but criminal instead of civil which is totally different. I had so many friends in my 20's and now my friendships are few are far between......not really the support system that I had at one time.
I still feel like I am soul searching and there is no magic number when we will feel at peace with ourselves and who we are.
So what's so special about being in your 20's? My boyfriend is 26 and he doesn't think that being of that age group is all that great. In fact, I think that he's looking forward to being in his 30's in a few years and being taken more seriously by other older adults that don't know him well. He hates looking like a young adult and being talked down to by people that are older.
I think it was just the fun times I had and the friends that were in my life........I don't have many friends anymore so maybe that is just why I associate 30 not being a great year for me so far. Don't get me wrong....I love my Fiance and my job but it just feels like there is a void in my life right now. I know that I just moved so that has had an impact on maintaining friendships as well.
20s: what an up-and-down decade. Dropped out of college. Got married. Resumed college. Dropped out again. Separated from spouse. Finished college. Started dating current spouse.
30s so far: Got divorced. Got married again. Started grad school. 5/8ths done with that.
So far my early 30s has been a mirror of my early 20s, only with more weight, more grey hair and a better-matched spouse. Oh, and no drop-outs yet. I sure hope the latter half of my 30s goes a lot better than the latter half of my 20s.
I think it was just the fun times I had and the friends that were in my life........I don't have many friends anymore so maybe that is just why I associate 30 not being a great year for me so far. Don't get me wrong....I love my Fiance and my job but it just feels like there is a void in my life right now. I know that I just moved so that has had an impact on maintaining friendships as well.
I think that the high point of my social life was freshman year in college. The college organized my dorm so that we were in groups of 50 boys and girls with two upperclassmen counselors. Then after college, it was fun to play in a (bad) local rock band and have a drummer boyfriend. However, over time my standards for what a good friendship is to me has gone up. So now I may have less friends, but they are higher quality ones. I feel that when I was young, I just had more casual acquaintances.
In my 30's is when I started to make enough money to feel like an independent adult. At the end of my 30's is when I discovered antiques and became an antique dealer. I started to take many fun road trips going to shows. My best summer ever was only 4-1/2 years ago when I met my boyfriend and took a month long road trip with him. Then a week after we returned, we took another impromptu road trip. Good times...
I guess that I wish that everyone would stop labeling themselves with their age. We are lucky people with smarts, education, great opportunities and free will. We have birth control. This is America, not some impoverished country with ultra conservative values. Reaching the age of 30 is not being suddenly over the hill. Your 30's and 40's will be awesome if you keep a positive attitude. And your 50's should be great too. In my opinion, some of the most good looking and interesting people are in their late 30's and 40's. People in their 20's just look so young and underdeveloped to me.
I guess it's hard to define what you mean by better.. for me? My 20's rocked, Early 20's were very slow, then when I hit mid 20's I partied hard with no regrets and had some of the best times of my life. In fact, all of them were memorable. This lasted only a period of a few years though-- Then I met my husband and was ready to settle down. I lived my life and was ready to move on to the next step.
Im only in my early 30's but with the birth of my daughter and becoming a mother, it's already a toss up!
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