Every where I turn people seem to be terrified of turning thirty. My facebook news feed is full of invites to events called "Oh my god I'm ancient!" or "Please help me drink enough to forget I'm 30". Elsewhere in the press I have read articles this week on experiencing a quarter life crisis as you approach thirty and how upsetting it is actually to be in your thirties. Come on ladies, let's try and get a bit of perspective here! Not least because your thirties truly are the best decade of your life.
The first thing I'll say is that you do need to do a bit of ground work to make sure that you have the very best time in your thirties. Your late twenties are the time to take stock of where you are in life, work out what it is that you really want and set about getting it. Get your head straight up front and I guarantee that you will love your thirties, no matter what your situation. Here are a few reasons why.
You have more money. Yes, we all know those irritating whizz kids who made a bundle at 19, but most of us take our time climbing the career ladder. This is normal. You will have cleared all those credit cards that you foolishly decided to get when you got your first proper job and you will have paid back your student loan. Now you have a bit of money to spare at last and you can think about what you want to spend it on. It might be a house, it might be a daft car, it might just be a better haircut.
You look better. You are starting to show the odd small signs of aging, how could you look better than a nubile young twenty something? Well, I shall tell you. By your thirties you will have worked out what suits you. Your twenties are spent experimenting with fashion and beauty but, by thirty we know how we want to look and we make it work. I have never met a woman who wasn't more beautiful at 35 than she was at 25.
You know more. With every day that passes you learn more. How often do we look back on ourselves as a cocky, know it all teen and realise that we knew diddly squat about anything? In your thirties you understand that you know a whole lot more about everything, but there is still a lot to learn. That is wisdom.
You are more attractive. Nothing, but nothing, is more attractive than someone who is comfortable in their own skin. If you know who you are and you are happy with that people love you for it.
I wave goodbye to my thirties next year and will be sad to see them go. I'll get back to you with a list on why your forties are even better once I've had a chance to check them out.