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30 Years Old

1/18/05

The question was innocent enough:  "How old are you gonna be?"

"30.  30 years old."

See, I...I don't really think it's the number, I really don't, even right now as I write this.  But, I'll have to admit, when you hear the number--or maybe, more accurately, when you hear yourself saying the number--it is shocking the first two or three times you say it.

"I'm 30 years old."

"I'm 30 years old."

Wow!  Even writing it down on paper, I have to assume a greater responsibility, a greater understanding of my role in today's society.  I have to, because I am 30 years old.

As a kid, I know that I reacted to adults that said they were 30 with this look of "sorry, oldtimer."  Now, as an adult, I'm anxious to see the reaction from teens and smaller children when I tell them that I am 30 years old, because even though I have looked like I am 30 for six or seven years now, really being thirty is quite a step.

I didn't really have any goals in mind when I turned 30, so I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed that I have reached this age without making it to any certain plateaus.  I didn't think I would be married by 30, and I never believed I would have any kids when I was 30 even if I was married.  My friend Brian "Schmoove" Prenoveau and I had talked about retiring at 30 and starting up baseball camps for kids a few years ago, but clearly that's not going to happen.  I did take an oath to never get a haircut again after age 30; that was easy, too, since I ran out to buy some hair clippers last week and my hair (and hairline) have deteriorated so badly that I won't need to even cut my hair very often to keep it looking decent.

My youthful state of mind and my persistent energy have made the transition from 20s to 30s a smooth one; in the last three days, I have done the same things I always do, running around on a basketball court, going to clubs, playing video games, talking smack with my kid sisters.  A lot of my 30-year-old friends are doing the things I thought 30-year-olds should be doing when I considered that age as a child--friends like Chuck and Teresa (raising a family), Claudia and Ant (buying a station wagon), Blanton and Beth (buying their second home).  Some of my other 30-year-old friends are doing the things that I think will indicate I have made a lifestyle change--watching more series television, shopping for infant clothes or enjoying more mature activities like hosting charity dinners or hangin' with the wives club or running their local PTA.  One day, I hope to be doing some of those things, even if that means retiring from my professional game-playing career or giving up three-nights-a-week clubbing to tone it down to one club night a month.

I don't think I ever really believed that I would hit this age, you know?  Maybe that's all it is.  Besides, as my friend Corina told me, turning 30 isn't that big a deal...but, turning 31 is a HUGE deal.  When you are 30, you can look at it and say,

"Well, last week, I was 29, and I still feel pretty good about things..."

but, when you're 31, there's no turning back.  You are fully engrossed in being in your thirties, and then your age is a former TV show.  You look in the mirror and say things like "I'm not getting any younger" or you start to worry about having kids if you haven't had any already, much more so than you would if you were just 30.  I had never even thought about it that way until Corina mentioned it to me...now, I'm already prepping for next year.

In the meantime, I'll try to deal with the things that are slipping out of my control as I get just a little bit older every year.  My physical condition is starting to slip, and I can already feel the metabolism slowing down...all this means is that I have to work harder to continue to eat Krispy Kremes, but now, I can actually imagine a point in my life when I can no longer eat those blessed hot glazed fountains of joy.  My sex life is supposedly going to being to deteriorate, although luckily, I don't have a sex life, so I have dodged the bullet there so far.  They say the memory may start to go, but besides the fact that I don't remember my home address, I think everything is still firmly kept up there in my noggin.  And who can forget the fact that The Man will begin taking more money from me on my life insurance now that I have moved into the 30-33 age bracket???  I love it when The Man gets to take more of my hard-earned dough!

I don't love it, though, when my 30-and-up friends look at me like I was Superman until my 30th birthday, and now hitting the magical number 30 has somehow made me weaker, somehow made me more human.  30-and-up co-workers now look at me with a state of calm, like "It's about time you joined us.  You may have had a good run enjoying the nightlife of our fair city...now it's time for YOU to see what life is REALLY like."  I had them before, had them all, when I was merely 29 years old; they might say "You're such a baby" or "I would trade anything for 29 right about now."

Now, I don't have shit.

But, I'm embracing 30, and I'm having fun with it right now.  I am giving advice to 20-somethings at every turn.  On the court, I think of myself as old and cagey now, so I'm trying to make more basketball moves that take advantage of my below-the-rim skills, since I can't dunk anymore and "flying high for the boards" doesn't apply to me now.  This year, I am going to buy a house or a condo if I can find something that appeals to my adult sensibilities; space for artwork, a large kitchen for my creations, possibly a den where I can do my thinking each evening.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to give up beer; I have decided to go out and get a bar for my home, stocked with liquor not called Colt, Franzia, Milwaukee's Best, Mad Dog or Boone's Country.  I might even buy myself a wine opener, just to spice things up a bit.  And, to cap it all off, I think I'll play the lotto more often, like my aunts and grandparents do.  Everyone knows you can't win the lotto until you are an adult!

Hey, it's going to be fun being old.  At least until you ask me how old I am.

 

Random Bellviews, courtesy of Bell and Longer Community Trust:

• Snow days:  Opening Weekend

• Snow days on a week where you already had a Monday holiday:  $9.50 Show

• Getting off for a snow day only to get caught in snow day traffic:  Matinee

• Two-hour delays:  Rental

• Not getting Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off, not getting a snow day, not getting a two-hour delay...AND not getting off for Inauguration Day:  Hard Vice

 

justin@bellviewmovies.com