Comments on: Growing Pains

By: Nothing But a Number - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Nothing But a Number - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:00:22 +0000

[...] passing is a call to focus on the shortcomings of your life as well as your mortality. SarahMC wrote eloquently about the phenomenon of melancholy colliding with birthdays, and I wonder if it is always more [...]

By: bellacoker

bellacoker — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:37:39 +0000

1) Happy Birthday!!
2) I don’t really get all introspecty about birthdays, but OMG! taking off in airplanes makes me re-examine my life! In a sort of, if I died right now, what would I regret? If I am lucky enough to live, what am I going to do about those things? way.

By: bluebears

bluebears — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:57:44 +0000

Happy Birthday SarahMC! I sometimes get broody on my birthday, it depends on whats going on in my life around that day. But allow some advice from an old lady of 31, just fucking enjoy life period. Age aint nothing but a number.

By: Apostrophes

Apostrophes — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:44:53 +0000

I don’t know if this will make this better or worse for you, but about four months into 27, you’ll be 10,000 days old. I’ve thus far managed to avoid focusing on the negative aspects of getting older by thinking how cool it will be to say “I’ve lived 10,000 days.” Past this I may be screwed.

(Also I’m searching for someone who was born on May 25, 1983 because they will be 10,000 days old on 10/10/10. I just want them to know. I’ve obviously thought about this way too much.)

By: ceejeemcbeegee

ceejeemcbeegee — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:41:09 +0000

Happy birthday!!!

27? Really? Call me when you hit 30….

But seriously, I’m turning 34 in a week, and on paper, I should be trippin. My career has stalled, I work a crap retail job, haven’t had a man in years, no house cause I live with parents, who are both retired and getting older and all that and I help out with my dads care…. But I’m mad content. I refuse to trip on any of Society’s billshit measuring stick crap. I know all the things I want will come, and many of the things I used to think I wanted, I don’t want anymore.

I asked my mom the other day if she was disappointed that I was single and childless. She threw me that look that said, “child please!” and told me she just wanted me to be happy: not according to cosmo, but according to ME. And ultimately, Isn’t that what’s important?

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:33:10 +0000

@SarahMC: I know so many people who have bought homes in your area over the last few years who now have mortgages worth more than their homes or who have adjustable interest rates that they can only barely afford to pay. Being a renter is not a bad thing in this market.

By: krismcn

krismcn — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:20:37 +0000

Thanks, rodriquez! I’m not saying I’ll stick with it forever, but for now. I started turning in high school, so I’d been coloring for FOREVER, but that shit’s expensive! I’m kinda bummed it’s such a signifier, because I really like the color as an aesthetic choice. Part of me likes being all, “This is what 41 looks like, mofos! Deal with it!”, but like Sarah said, moving into a new (low-value) bracket can test a harpy’s fortitude.

By: Endora

Endora — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:14:04 +0000

Oh, but also: when I was living in Germany, that pressure-to-achieve-by-a-certain age thing was waaay less. Most of my friends there are in their mid-twenties (25 or 26) and are still studying, and probably will be for a while.

But a lot of people don’t finish university until they’re about 30 there. I’m at a British uni and my German friends all think it’s amazing that I’ll have a BA at age 21…

By: Endora

Endora — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:12:33 +0000

I am only 21, but I already struggle with this a little bit, but more because I feel like I need to make some decisions about what to do with my life and I am frightened of making the wrong one.

I think those feelings are normal. I try to tell myself that my life is MINE, and I don’t have to live it the way anyone else thinks is best. But then there’s the family, a big section of which are religious, middle-class American, white, traditionalists who can’t imagine that you might not aspire to have a suburban house with a picket fence and 2.3 kids by age 32, much less be the agnostic socialist that I am. My mother is ALREADY talking about her grandchildren.

I try to tune all that out and go my own way, but it is not always easy.

By: rodriguez

rodriguez — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:59:41 +0000

krismcn:: I must give you one big huge hi-5 for letting your hair go silver! I will die clutching my hair dye.