I thought that turning 30 last year was the end of the world. Well, I'm facing 31 in a couple of months, and I now know what my brother meant when he said 31 is much worse than 30. I am now IN my 30s. It's scary to think that I'm now officially closer to 40 than 20.
On my 30th birthday I realized that I wasn't really where I thought I would be at this point in my life. When you're in your 20s, you're so optimistic that by the time you're 30 you'll be established in your career, and you'll have a husband, 2.5 kids, and a dog. Then you hit your third decade, and you've started a whole new career, and there are no men or kids in the picture at all. The dog might be there, or you might be starting your cat collection so that you can be the quirky cat lady on your block.
Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not all that bad! It's so cliche to say that once you stop worrying about something that it kind of falls into your lap, but that's what happened to me.
At 30 I was in a dead-end "relationship." Basically, he wanted to screw around once in awhile, but he didn't want anyone to know we were seeing each other. Now, I'm not hideously ugly, stupid, or psycho, so it's not what you're thinking. I just chose a guy who was so afraid of commitment that he treated me like crap.
Then, at a party with my friends, I told this guy that I thought I was falling for him. He told me he didn't care about my feelings, even as my friend. What happened? I ended up crying on the stairs, and a guy I had previously thought was a total jerk sat with me while I wept and just listened to me. We've been inseparable ever since, and I couldn't be happier. I just wish I would have known earlier that he was interested. Maybe then I wouldn't have wasted two years of my life on someone who wasn't ready to be in an adult relationship.
Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to be married and popping out kiddos anytime soon. I still want to take things slowly to make sure that I'm with the right person for all of that. However, I haven't been this happy in years.
So, if you're sitting around thinking you'll never have all that you wished for when you were younger, there's still hope! Just hang in there. The guy (or girl), you're looking for might just be someone you've known for a long time and just didn't notice they were noticing you.
