This is my last day in my twenties…

Just before leaving work for the weekend a manager told me that I now have ten years to get my shit together. Which is a big relief as I was under the assumption that this was what my twenties was all about. I have a bit more time and I welcome that with open arms.

 

I made a last minute decision to fly out of Melbourne and spend my birthday weekend in Brisbane, a city I fell in love with when I was there and I still have many friends there. In fact one of my friends has the same birthday and a big reason for travelling back to Queensland was to have a joint celebration.

Now I have never been one to make a huge deal out of a birthday, I simply prefer to have a few drinks with friends. And it is weird as this one isn’t just another birthday, it is the next ‘big’ one after 21. And to think tomorrow I will be in my thirties is still surreal to me.

It is strange however that I am not dreading it. I think I was more concerned about turning thirty in my mid twenties, I guess I have just accepted that it is happening and found peace. One thing that has helped with this is that I am going to ensure that I make the most out of life no matter what age I am. I feel it isn’t really the number that is a factor in peoples misery but where they are at that age. I know people in their early twenties that really struggle to find happiness and people in the latter stages of life with a huge smile on their face everyday. For me, it is the ‘settling down’ that sounds unsettling. Doing what is expected for a person of a certain age instead of what we want to do at that age. I am still going to travel through my thirties as I did my twenties. And I am going to make sure I have as little regrets as possible.

A mistake I made in my twenties was to have a ‘things to do before I am 30’ list whizzing around my head, especially 27 onwards. I mean this is good, as it gets shit done. However we don’t always get what we want and sometimes this urgency makes life less enjoyable than just enjoying the moment. It is possible to be that focused on doing everything we want to do that we don’t fully appreciate what we have done and achieved. Regret and desire are such strong feelings, and the feelings of accomplishment don’t last very long.

The good news is that I am at the very beginning of my thirties, so I don’t have that mad rush to complete everything I want to do in this decade. But I am going to make sure that I have my life together more and instead of running around frantically without a plan trying to tick every box I want to tick, I am going to invest more time putting plans in place that will help me not just achieve these goals, but have much more success in doing so.

And of course, I will be here.

I haven’t been as present on my blog the past couple months, but that is going to change. I only have two more months in Australia and I want to make the most of them. And after that I will have a whole bunch of fresh things to blog about back in Europe. But for now, Brisbane.

brisbanefromplane

So am I okay turning 30? I think so. I feel good, I am enjoying life and that is much more important than age. Some people don’t even make it this far. Sometimes we obsess so much about our younger days that we forget that we are the young ones that our future selves look back on. It is all about perspective.

Now, to making my thirties ten years to remember!!

 

 

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Happy blogging,

Sam

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85 thoughts on “This is my last day in my twenties…”

      1. It was all in fun. I remember telling my dad and brothers that in reality i was on top of the hill watching my dad going down and my brothers coming up. 🙂

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    1. Thanks David, I appreciate you stopping by. The truth is I don’t really know! Back to the UK first, a quick holiday to Germany and then from there I will have to decide.

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  14. I remember freaking out about turning 30 the entire year before it happened. Expected the same thing before turning 40, but it didn’t happen. Funny how the mind works. Have a great birthday and may your 30s be your best decade yet!

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    1. Enjoy the four years, but that isn’t the end of the road! Enjoy the next few years and use that time to make sure you enjoy every year after that 🙂

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  17. “For me, it is the ‘settling down’ that sounds unsettling. Doing what is expected for a person of a certain age instead of what we want to do at that age.”

    Good realization to have. As far as any of us know for sure, this is the one life we get, and it’s better to live it as -our- life than to live it as someone else’s life.

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  18. Living in a retirement home as I do, those that are able still travel as often as body, resources, and time allow. There are amazing people here who have done so much, given so much to people all over the world- they are as much fun, challenging, and engaged with life as my daughters and their friends and my connections with senior dance majors at Oberlin College with whom I have done two dance projects this year. Experience is the teacher and mentor of us all. Happy Birthday.

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    1. ‘Experience is the teacher and mentor of us all.’ Love that! It really is. And your retirement home certainly sounds like it is full of fun people. I love that too. Glad you and those you have in your life are full of life and want to have fun.

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  23. Happy birthday. I remember being in disbelief and I still am when I turned 30. Time kept going and I am a lot closer to 40 and still living the best time of my life with my family.

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  25. Enjoy your birthday! A few people I used to live with were great fans of 24 things before 24, 25 things before 25, etc. I think they ended up so focussed on quantifiable things that they didn’t really think about the stuff you can’t write on a list. 29 year old me has developed/learned considerably compared my 20 year old self, so that suggests all the things that have happened in this decade have been meaningful, even if they weren’t list-worthy 🙂

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    1. Yes it seems like we can be too busy ticking boxes that we just don’t spend enough time content, and not achieving something by a certain age seems like failure. It shouldn’t be! Every experience we have can have some great lesson or meaning and makes us who we are today. Thanks for the lovely comments!

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  26. I don’t know whether there is an actual finite point whereupon one has to get one’s shit together or not but I really wouldn’t worry about it either way. You should do whatever it is that you want to do and in whatever time-frame you choose to do it. We are all different and some will doubtless already have their shit together and some will achieve that state in due course while some may never do so. I’m 65 and don’t know (or care) whether I have my shit together or not. By the time you get to be 65 I will be long gone and it really won’t matter very much by then whether I did or did not have my shit together or not. Have a great birthday and enjoy your journey into middle-age! Also enjoy Brisbane (my most visited Oz city).

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    1. It depends what we class as ‘having shit together’ I guess, as the more we have it together we will always strive for that little extra. You are right, we all have different time frames and achieve things in different orders. I remember my university lecturer in his late 50’s/early 60’s telling me he didn’t know what he wanted to do in life. I don’t mind what age I achieve what I want to, as long as I do. And I try not to take life too seriously whilst I am at it!

      Thanks for the lovely comments.

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    1. Haha but when you’re 50, you will cry that you are no longer 30 😉 which seems strange because you want to be something you didn’t at the time!! Try to look forward and remember that your future self will look at your currently young self with envy, it is just hard to imagine before you’re there.

      I hope you celebrate the next milestone!

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  29. Think not about the thirties to the forties. Not about old you are or will be. Live and do for the day, maintain your health, and never think about age. Being satisfy’d with a lifetime– ’tis one’s preeminent reward. Anyway… hope you had a wonderful birthday Day.

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  35. HAHA!! I wrote a blog post about Age Milestones recently where I talked about how the society expects us to get certain thing done by certain age. Like completing college and them a job right after and 3 years after that getting married and then kids and a house an so on and so forth. And honestly, that just makes everything in life a whole lot miserable because it’s like this ticking timebomb that will explode.
    At the end of the day we should all do things in our pace and be Happy.

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    1. See that kind of thing scares me! Having this checklist that we need to do in order… not for me. Nor is it easy. I appreciate your wise words and it is certainly the way I will try to live.

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  36. A little late but hope you enjoyed your birthday in Brisbane. It’s good to see you’re embracing your 30’s too, still plenty of fun to be had after your 20’s 🙂

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      1. You’re welcome and yes, doing good thanks. Enjoying the little summer we currently have in England haha.

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  38. Happy Birthday Sam! I hope it was awesome! I love your perspective by the way. As someone who is wrapping up his 20s, I too am reaching your conclusions. I have definitely been actively trying to live my life without regrets for years, but I am still working on letting go of the expectations in the back of my head telling me what I should have accomplished by each birthday. Great post bud, keep traveling, and keep writing! 📝🌎🎂

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    1. Thank you! I had a great time thanks. It is almost impossible to completely ignore such thoughts in my opinion, so for me it is about reminding yourself to not be ruled by them and enjoy everything good that is happening in your life.

      Thanks for the lovely comments!

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