It’s not like years ago
So, in case no one has yet noticed; my blog, the categories i am using from this point on, and the titles of my posts are all lyrics from REM songs. If you can identify the correct song the title of my blog posts come from, you, my friend, will deserve a cookie. I can’t promise that I will be able to get it to you, but you will in fact deserve one. There really isn’t a good reason for this other than that when i decided to launch this thing I had ‘It’s the End of the World’ stuck in my head. Today’s title comes from my favorite REM song of all time, it even rivals the Beatles "I’m Only Sleeping" and a few others from the likes of the Chili Peppers and GnR for my favorite song of all time. But that’s not really why I chose it.
In less than one week I will turn 30. Everyone I know in the area who has already "done it" tells me it’s no big deal, that 31 is worse. Will they say that 32 is totally worse than 31 next year? Does that mean that it really is all downhill from here? Considering a recent WaPost article (sorry, couldn’t find the link) said that life expectencay for women is rapidly increasing and for those born in the US within the last 30 years, (that’s me! - barely…) we could easily live up to the early 100’s.** If that’s true, I’ve got a good 20 years till I hit middle age.
That part sounds good but let’s consider this: People are also telling me that our 30’s are the new 20’s. Speaking as someone who is about to wrap that decade of my life, I’m not sure I can take another 10 years of that krap. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my 20’s but really, who would want to lose that much sleep, accumulate that much debt, or deal with that many bad boyfriends twice?
So, how does that in any way relate to the title of today’s post? Mostly because as I look at who I’ve become and how I see the world - while there are many similarities and I still believe that I can change the world - it really isn’t like years ago. I remember turning 20 and being at my friend Adriana’s house and thinking about what my 20’s were going to be like (I was married at 25 and had my first child at 28 - just to be clear, that was the plan, not reality…). As I face 30 and the following decade, I find I’m really not trying to guess what they will be like, not trying to assign deadlines to the things I want to happen. And that my friends is worth leaving the 20’s for.
Well, there is one deadline. I will work in the White House or one of the connected buildings by the age of 34 in 2009…
**(Granted this really doesn’t take into account the fact that many of us will be killed off by unsustainable use of chemicals/pesticides/global warming floods/earthquakes/hurricanes/tornados etc…not to be morbid)
