The Wonderful World of Minotaur

I am almost 28. I have a few months left of 27, which means I will have to accept that I am firmly in my late 20s, and 30 is just around the corner. I’ve never been one to be scared of my 30s. On the contrary, I’ve looked forward to turning 30 since I was in my early 20s. 

Between one of my favourite rom coms (13 Going On 30) and a handful of 30-something social media personalities and content creators that I’ve followed for a few years now, 30s look fun. Everyone always described it as your 20s, but with more money, which sounds like a dream. Who wouldn’t look forward to that?!

‘Thirty, flirty and thriving’ is the phrase that comes to mind when I think of entering my 30s – a phrase coined in 13 Going On 30. An era where I’ll finally have all my shit together, and I’ll finally know what I want and I’ll be thriving. While I still want this for myself, the fast approaching age of 30 is now filling me with dread as I don’t think I have the foundation for it laid. 

Somewhere along the way, I ended up idealising my 30s. I created a reality where everything will fall into place on my way there and once the clock strikes midnight on 18th May 2027, my life will be perfect. I thought I’d have the building blocks ready in my late 20s. But now that I’m in my late 20s and still feeling directionless, I’m a little scared. 

There are many things I thought I’d do in my 20s. I remember turning 20 in university and thinking about how much I wanted to do in the next nine years. Figure out my career, live in a different country, try new things, get some tattoos and piercings, fall in love. I even have my bucket list of countries – I want to reach 30 countries before 30 (currently on 25, which I guess isn’t too bad). 

Essentially, there are many things I want to achieve before I turn 30 and it feels like time is running out. But this is the problem with creating mental timelines instead of just going along with the flow of life. As much as I tried to tell myself life does not end at 30, for some reason I still created deadlines for 30, which doesn’t actually make much sense.

So now that I’ve reflected on all this, what happens next? Well I guess the next step is to remove those expectations, or the weight behind them. I need to know within myself that the world does not end if I don’t meet these imaginary deadlines. There’s still so much life to live after 30.