Recently in Guest Posts Category

I came across Christina's blog, several months ago and have been a fan and frequent visitor ever since.  She has great pictures, great stories, and a terrific writing style.  A short while ago I asked if she'd be interested in writing a guest post and yesterday I had the following lovely article in my e-mail.  Thank you, Christina! 

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Had this been a post about my twenties you all would be in for a real dramatic roller coaster of frightening mistakes and harrowing tragedies.

Thankfully Erin asked me to blog about my thirties and since I am only going to be 31 this fall I have little to share in the way of experience. Because of this I can title my post "Turning 30" instead of "Your 20's: Mistakes you don't want to make." As you can already guess, I spent a better part of my twenties making as many mistakes as humanly possible to ensure that:

1. I'd have it out of my system by my 30's.
2. By some freak of nature I'd manage to actually learn my lessons.
3. I could write this blog post for Erin.

Often, for me, it feels as though my 20's were insanely different from where I am headed now. A different time, a different person and a very different experience. I could go on and on until we end up with a 600 page novel, but for now here's a brief summary of what has changed for me in my thirties:

1. I like cats. I have no idea how this even happened.

2. I am called Ma'am more and carded for alcohol less.

3. As I neared my 30's I found my interests rapidly changing, specifically in men. For instance I required they not be douchebags anymore.

4. I have to exercise now and getting back into exercise is not as easy as it used to be. Come to think of it before I was 30 I didn't really even need to exercise.

5. The value of friendship has never been more clear. I've reached an understanding that you outgrow friendships. You become mature enough to know which friends are worth letting go and which ones are worth holding on to.

6. I don't try to keep up with the Joneses because...well, I'm not a Jones.

7. I am almost always positive that clothing trends of teenagers are stupid...this includes the clothing I wore as a teenager, when I was stupid.

8. I can no longer eat 10 slices of pizza or 15 crunchy tacos from Taco Bell without consequence. See #04.

9. Life seems more settled; or maybe it's better to say that I feel more stable.

10. The one thing that has changed most for me since hitting 30 is that statistically speaking I have many years left to live but realistically speaking I am learning to live each day like it is my last.

I don't really miss my twenties and I'm very excited about my thirties...I don't want to even think about my 40's.

Let me start with an apology. It's my birthday next month, and I'll be 29. That puts me outside the usual author demography for this site, which is why this is just a guest blog post to look through someone else's eyes.

I've still got one more year to ponder it, but at this moment in time, turning 30 holds indifference for me; I'm neither looking forward to it nor dreading it. Age is just a concept developed as a measure of time that's loosely related to the motions of astronomical bodies. Instead of the default omitted unit of years, we could equally count the number of jobs we've had, the amount of time we've spent on holiday, or the number of people who love us. Sure, all of these will be different values for different people, but what does age really tell us?

Experiences is where it's at. It's this qualitative aspect of our lives that describes who we are, where we came from, and where we think we're going that shapes the impression you give, far more than any quantitative expression. It's the key that unlocks many doors.

All experiences are good. We may not enjoy some of them, and they won't all be positive, but they do benefit us; what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger, as the saying goes. Our personality is part nature, part nurture, where an infinite amount of these and other factors resolve to how that experience feels to any single individual.

I'm fortunate - I've got a decent personality for the most part, and I was well brought up. I'm laid-back, take things in my stride, am appreciative of what I've got, and try not to take things for granted. I look on past experiences as the sculptor's knife as he carves out his next work of art, chipping, smoothing, refining. The experiences I took from working as a teacher in schools helped me in teaching and managing in prisons. The experience I gained there helped me to understand how management in other companies work, and this in turn is helping me with my current work. Building upon these skills and experiences helps me to find new goals and new achievements.

When I'm thirty-something, instead of twenty-something, it will just mean I'm a few years older, nothing more. I'll have had some more experiences for sure, but I won't be making any stereotypical mid-life crisis thoughts about approaching 40 unless that's what my experiences suggest I should be doing.

For me, 2007 and 2008 were the most experiential I've had for many reasons, and 2009 may well be no different. Next month I'll be a little more experienced than I am now. How experienced will you be?

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Special thanks to Gary for taking the time to contribute to my blog.

If you would like to hear my thoughts on this same topic please visit my post titled, On Turning 30.