Well, today was the day - a milestone birthday - the day I reached the big three-oh. Yes, today I left my roaring twenties behind me and entered thirtysomething-hood.

Yipes.

I’ve never been the type to get all weird about having a birthday. I may always joke about suddenly being old and decrepit, but I’ve never really woken up on my birthday and felt any sort of depression or despair about getting older. However, up until today, I could always comfort myself with the fact that at least I was "still in my twenties" - which, in my mind, basically equated to "still being young".

But as this dreaded thirtieth birthday loomed on the horizon, I started to worry that maybe, just maybe, when the day actually rolled around, I would indeed have some sort of crisis about it - a mid-mid-life crisis, perhaps, or simply a dark, lonely moment where I found myself pondering the long-lost days of my youth and wondering just what I had to show for my life. As silly as it may sound, I thought that this might be the birthday where I woke up in the morning and suddenly really did feel different, really did feel - well, old.

As it turned out, when I woke up this morning, my first thought was, "It’s my birthday! Yay!" My second thought was, "I’m thirty years old. Thirty." And my third thought was, "I’m thirty years old! Cool!" Strangely enough, instead of feeling overwhelmed and ancient, I felt like I had just joined some sort of secret club. It’s weird to think that I’m thirty, and it’s even weirder to say it out loud, but it’s weird-funny, not weird-bad. In fact, I’d say it’s rather good.

The day itself was good, too. Mostly, it was a day like any other day (work, etc.), except that I got cool presents (including the necklace in the picture below - thank you, my dear), was lavished with flowers (thank you, my loving family - thank you, my wonderful friends), had a fabulous four-hour meal at one of Brighton’s finer eating establishments, laughed myself silly watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, and generally lived the good life. If this is what being thirty is all about, then I say: bring it on! And to all of you young-uns out there who have yet to reach your third decade of life, I say: don’t fear the much-maligned three-oh. It’s really quite a laugh.

Further reading…