Older, but maybe not wiser yet

Last week I turned 31. Surprisingly I'm taking it harder than I did when I turn 30. But now, I'm IN my 30s! I don't want to be in my 30s yet! And the bad part is, I feel like I'm in my 30s. I want to feel like I'm in my 20s. Well I'd like to feel 17, but my mortgage, credit card bills, and the tiny wrinkles I'm getting around my eyes are keeping me from thinking that.

When we're younger we can't wait to get older. We are always excited for our birthdays.

When you're a nerdy 12 year old you can't wait to be a teenager. At 14 when your parents have to take you and your date to the movies, you can't wait to turn 16 and get your license. Then, since getting your first taste of a little independence, 16 to 18 feels like an eternity before you get to go to college, move out on your own, and make the typical bad/questionable decisions all co-eds do and have to learn from. Sure, now I know that riding in the flat bed of a friend's truck going 70 mph on the highway is not a good idea. But all I thought at the time was "Awesome! I have a DD."

Now after your 21st birthday, it's all just a blur. Your birthdays just all blend together. No big event separates them from the year before. They are all the same.

In fact, I remember a few days before my 24th birthday my mom said to me "So are you excited for your birthday? I guess it's not that big of a deal to you. Being 23 is pretty the same as being 22". I replied "Yes. Yes it is. But I'm going to be 24."

I wasn't upset with her though. Mainly because right after she said it I had to stop and think to make sure I wasn't wrong and had gotten my years all mixed up.

So you sail through your 20s and then after the dreaded 30th, things start to go downhill. It starts off slow, but then you start to get heartburn from certain foods all of a sudden, you're getting up in the middle of the night to pee, and you don't like hanging out at bars because the music is so freaking loud.

I'm not saying it's bad. There are really good things about getting older. Getting married, buying a house, having children (No. I'm not pregnant. Quit asking!) and then ultimately, retirement. Something I think everyone looks forward to the most.

So, here's to getting older. Here's to enjoying middle age.