I would like to preface this piece by saying that I am a VERY young 28! That said, 30 feels closer and closer and below are several signs that I have spotted in myself and my friends that indicate we are coming to the end of our 20s.
Let me know what other patterns you have noticed.
1) Your Facebook feed is no longer filled with photos of boozy nights out- it is now largely made up of pictures of newborns/new pets that are a test-run for newborns/engagement rings/marathon times
2) Dinner parties are now a legitimate social activity and sometimes preferable to a proper night out
3) Suddenly you find yourself opening up savings accounts and feeling that all the money you earn isn’t purely for your own immediate enjoyment. Frightful words like mortgages enter your vocabulary.
4) Up until recently, people were competitive about how many shots they had downed over the weekend. Now, they compete on how many miles they ran on Saturday morning. They have also replaced said shots with juices made up of wheatgrass, kombucha and flax…I think the shot would probably be more palatable. This sudden obsession with exercise seems to fit in with a bigger need to appear to be ‘functional’ and ‘balanced’. Suddenly carb-free lasagna recipes are being shared around and debates are had on whether Vinyasa or Ashtanga yoga is a better practice.
5) You start spending money on skin products like eye gels, night creams, day creams, mid-morning and dusk creams…anything to stop the erosion of your face! You also begin noticing wrinkles on yourself and others and use it as an indicator to guess age. When I was stopped from buying wine recently as I didn’t have ID, I pointed out my crows feet as a way of proving there was no way I was under 18. While this method didn’t work at the time (a stranger in the shop had to buy the wine for me), it’s worth a try!
6) A city break no longer involves staying in a 20 bed dorm. Instead, you ‘go local’ by staying in some trendy, city-centre airbnb apartment or else you get yourself to a hotel.
7) You start to assess your relationships more critically. As 30 approaches, you want to be 100% certain about someone if you are going to stay with them. A lot of long-term, seemingly content couples have broken up over the last year or two as they aren’t completely sure about being with that person for life. On that note, check out this video by Garfunkel and Oates which compares the perspective of a female at 29 and 31.
8) New slang has to be explained to you by the younger generations . I embarrassingly had to ask my younger sister what YOLO meant earlier this year.
9) You get panicky about parents/grandparents ageing and you make a much bigger effort with your family. I have recently started taking photos of my granny every time I see her- to a ridiculous extent where we will just be walking down the street and I’ll begin snapping away!
10) If you aren’t completely settled, you have a strong compulsion to quit work, go travelling and study something new. Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline and as 30 creeps up, you make big life changes while you still can.
Rowena Crowley 