Club 30

A friend of mine who is turning 30 soon doesn’t want to have a birthday bash to celebrate, even though most of our circle of friends did something of some magnitude for their 30th. She doesn’t really seem to be looking forward to it.

On the other hand, another friend who just recently turned 30 loves it; she doesn’t even mind that when she told her 40ish coworker about Forth & Towne, Gap’s new store for women 35 and older, the coworker responded, “Oh, it’s for women like us?”

According to Bravo’s Best Things About Being…30 show, there are many good things about being 30. Here are a few things that they believe to be good about being 30, in no particular order, and my take on them:

They say: You can date younger men.
I say: Because those are the only ones who are left, unless you expand your repertoire to divorcees, single dads, Star Trek nerds, or all of the above.

They say: You can buy stuff.
I say: And I’m in deeper debt because of it.

They say: You know who you are.
I say: I am resigned to be who I am. It’s too late to be considered an ingénue of any type.

Despite how it sounds, I do like being 30. I feel like I can call myself a woman instead of a girl now, even though nothing about myself has changed, either physically, professionally, or financially. When I was 29, that would have made me sad. Now that I’m 30, I say, oh well.

It sounds rather depressing, but I suppose how you feel about your life in its current state is all relative. No, I’m not raking in the dough; on the other hand, I’m not getting someone’s coffee or making copies. Plus, if you feel older and more sophisticated, you can trick others into thinking of yourself that way. Perception is greater than reality, after all.

Whether or not I’ll feel that way at 31, however, is a different story. I guess I’ll report back in about six months…