30: The Big Gear Shift

Normally the older folks I know just smile indulgently on youngins like myself who bemoan how old we're feelin'.  Shoot, my own Aunt once called my Dad a "child" cause he was "only" 60.  Age is all just a matter of perspective I guess.

Except with 30, I've realized.  I hit the big 3-0 myself earlier this year, and even now it still feels like a car that's leaking transmission fluid making a gear shift in cold weather--lurching, jolting, heart-attack inducing, and slow to settle into the next stage.

And here's the thing--whenever I tell these aforementioned older folks how I feel like I'm still stuck between gears, I brace myself for them to just sort of snort and chuckle and say something reassuring like "yeah, I remember being that young..."

But then they don't.  To a man, they don't!  Instead, they nod solemnly and say, "Yep, that was a hard age for me, too."  And not even sarcastically.  They've even told me that turning 40, 50, 60, while certainly sobering milestones as well, still aren't as strange-feeling as 30.  Something about hitting 30 just throws you off-kilter.

So take heart, fellow 30-year-olds!  You are not alone.  You really are at the strangest age of all.  30 is the big gear shift.