Remember that show 30 something? It was a tv drama, that I was much too young to be watching, that was sometimes on in the background growing up. All the people in the show were a mess. Raising kids, having affairs, crying a lot- I think one person may have had AIDS (it was the nineties and a hot topic). I don't think there was anyone black in the group (not surprising). One of the main characters turned 36, the same age as my aunt at the time, and that age has always been the "scary" age for me. Like you are old when you are 36.
Now I am a thirty something myself and I have to say, just like the show, life is kind of shit show. Why? Because everything happens in a decade and all so fast. You are at the top of your game professionally, meaning it's the most demanding time at work. You found a partners along the way and you now balance two jobs and worlds in the same household. You are making more money so you ditch the simple studio apartment and buy a house with a mortgage. Then you decide to fill the house with a pet or human or more than that. Then there are changes, and things get interrupted and you have the job, the house, the dog, the kid, the aging parents and a global pandemic occurs. You are now the adult in the global pandemic with all the things.
You are not old. You are thirty. You are tired, you are busy, you are making more decisions than ever before. Perhaps you are working and homeschooling your children- I mean WTF. You are taking on all the THINGS, all at once. Your plans are falling apart during the time when you have been promoted to captain. I just have to say that going to bed early, binge watching Netflix, throwing your hair in a tangled bun or getting botox is all so allowed and so fine and so okay. Judging yourself because you are in a confusing and clunky time between your 20's and your middle age is a waste of time. And- maybe you feel old-but you are only 3 decades in and doing so much.
I do think that maybe we emerge from our thirties with more wrinkles and some gray hair but we are not old, we are thirty something and doing so f!@#$%& much.