Turning 30

The F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode about turning thirty is playing on my mind and I’m something of all 6 (plus Tag) when taking on the new decade. I remember watching this episode as a teenager and thinking I had a lot of time and quite frankly not relating to the ache of leaving the 20s. But as an entire generation is stepping into a new decade of their life, the episode and everyone’s reactions stand more meaning than what they did when I first watched it. We will be stepping into a scary decade of starting to be referred to as “Uncle” & “Aunty” or even “Mom” & “Dad”. And so as I write this I truly wonder, is age really just a number? 

I remember wanting desperately to turn 18. It symbolized so much. I would become a major in this country. I could vote, get a driver’s license and start to earn money. 18 was therefore a lot more welcome than 30. At least that’s what I thought.

When I started to see the posts on Instagram about ’93 born celebrating their 30th birthday, I waited to think how really was it going to be any different? Quite frankly, I’m not so sure myself. The ’30s have been routinely taken as the age of “settling”. Finding your careers, cities, & partners & building a stable life. But is that the same in 2023? Or can it be different?

As a millennial, it would be safe to say that my generation never really caught a break! We were constantly on the roll. So much change, so much to cope up with, and the inevitable struggles that it brought along for a generation, and here we are. At the cusp of a new decade. “Change” – seems like the buzzword for us. 

Too much? Alright, stepping into a lighter note.

The past decades have been our happy place, which in a nutshell would be “blast from the past!!” Many of our memories come from a place sans technology. It comes from the feelings that we registered, the happiness that we felt, and the sense of security and normalcy that it symbolized for us. So neither a phone nor a TV or any electrical instrument forms a part of our core memories. Mostly it sets in the smells of freshly churned home-made butter turned into “Ghee”; the smell of the fancy erasers; new textbooks, grandma’s saree, her stories, the pickle jars, the black kitchen platform where I sat watching my mom cook, the tunes that the radio played, the trips that the school took us to & so many more….

I say sans technology but computers were a part of it. So was a Walkman and TV. But that’s it. The Computer and Walkman were extremely rare commodities. You could get access to them if and only if you had elder siblings! But TV was not as rare as the other two. Although having a cable connection was rare.  TV had some iconic ads and shows at the time. I often find myself searching a few of my favorite shows and ads on YouTube. It’s like a time machine that transports me back in time.

The music at the time had moved from the melodies of the black and white era to hip hop, jazz, remix, and fresh yet amazing experiments by so many music directors and singers. Films were to be watched in single-screen theatres with popcorn & ice creams which were really not equivalent to our parents’ entire month's take-home pay. Birthday parties were friends coming home, cutting the cake, and getting presents. Most of the moments were captured in the roll camera not a digital one. All things were simpler. FOMO was not a thing. 

But ours has been a generation of constant upgrades. The journey of upgrades has continued still. A set of people may not have realized how much changed while we were actually a part of it.  That is why I think, we are a generation that has clung on to the pieces of these memories tightly. So what the 30s represented 5 years ago does not stand true for this set of DNA that is the millennials. 

So the point is we aged, but never really did. The number increased but the significance of it never fully seeped in. The more I think about it the more I understand the significance of age. It’s a process you can’t really stop. But how you take it is really your choice. So if you ask me what would this new decade mean to me? I would say, Acceptance! A choice we constantly deny ourselves. At least I do. Acceptance of what really is my normal! It doesn’t matter what makes sense to the world, if I find sense in it for me, then it’s good for me.

They say there’s an age for everything. But is there really? We have grown past so many notions of our ancestors and wise forefathers that this one would hardly stand a chance of survival now.  So what is age really? The time we spent on earth or the time that is allocated to us to see and explore things?

Evolution has shown that the needs of our oldest forefathers was survival. As the species started surviving the next ones aimed at stabilizing and living. Then came quality and now comes liberty. Liberty from the worries of survival. Our roots are strong and grounded. So now comes the time to spread out and see how tall & wide we can rise & spread.

Stepping into a responsible decade can be tough for a generation that has barely started to understand the basics of being an adult. But as the new tag goes, the 30s are the new 20s with money to spend! 

So here’s to a generation turning 30! After all, we are just getting started🥂