Remembering looking forward to becoming 'that' age...
Michelle wrote a blog musing about a friend's request for five things that you should do before you turn 30, I started to write a comment, but it turned more into a mini-blog in itself so it seemed like a good idea to post it here…
I can’t deny that the prospect of my turning 30 did add a few changes to my world…
I remember the moment well, there I was, 27 years old, picking avocadoes for a living in Australia (say living but… well… whatever), when it suddenly occurred to that in a few years I would be 30. An adult. A grown up. It worried me.
I had a reasonable degree and had never actually been unemployed, but it struck me that I had also never actually had a ‘proper job’. What I *had* done is devoted a few too many years to travelling to and living in some of the prettiest parts of the uk & the world in general; but this had done very little towards providing for my or anyone else’s seniority. Was it now time to think about settling?
Just one morning of thinking about reaching that ‘special’ age helped me to realise that at some point soon I would become both too old to settle down & too old not to…
So the decision was made that at the end of that trip (which somehow lasted for another six months) I would head home, get a ‘proper job’, buy a house and finally settle down. By my 30th I did have a proper job & within a month I moved into my own house, but was far from settled down.
It took precisely three years (and the re-intervention of someone special) for me to decide that it would be a good idea to sell the house, can the job and follow my heart again.
A year later and here I am thoroughly entrenched in some pretty firm heart following (even if it has temporarily taken the form of someone who is waiting for a few pieces of bureaucracy to be processed).
So five things to do before you’re 30
1. Stop living your life in the manner to which you have become accustomed
2. Get a haircut
3. & get a real job
4. Buy a house
5. Have a period of being miserable and wondering ‘is this sensible stuff right stuff to be doing…?’
I can’t deny that the prospect of my turning 30 did add a few changes to my world…
I remember the moment well, there I was, 27 years old, picking avocadoes for a living in Australia (say living but… well… whatever), when it suddenly occurred to that in a few years I would be 30. An adult. A grown up. It worried me.
I had a reasonable degree and had never actually been unemployed, but it struck me that I had also never actually had a ‘proper job’. What I *had* done is devoted a few too many years to travelling to and living in some of the prettiest parts of the uk & the world in general; but this had done very little towards providing for my or anyone else’s seniority. Was it now time to think about settling?
Just one morning of thinking about reaching that ‘special’ age helped me to realise that at some point soon I would become both too old to settle down & too old not to…
So the decision was made that at the end of that trip (which somehow lasted for another six months) I would head home, get a ‘proper job’, buy a house and finally settle down. By my 30th I did have a proper job & within a month I moved into my own house, but was far from settled down.
It took precisely three years (and the re-intervention of someone special) for me to decide that it would be a good idea to sell the house, can the job and follow my heart again.
A year later and here I am thoroughly entrenched in some pretty firm heart following (even if it has temporarily taken the form of someone who is waiting for a few pieces of bureaucracy to be processed).
So five things to do before you’re 30
1. Stop living your life in the manner to which you have become accustomed
2. Get a haircut
3. & get a real job
4. Buy a house
5. Have a period of being miserable and wondering ‘is this sensible stuff right stuff to be doing…?’
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home