Seriously, Time? Seriously.

Posted by beth on March 4, 2011

I’ve always heard that time seems to speed up as you age, and I’m really starting to believe it in earnest now. Maybe it’s just because this past year has been such a whirlwind, but dang. 365 days already? Incredible.

I don’t know if you caught it at the end of the last post, but I’m turning 31. This weekend. I’m still not really cool with being 30. I still feel 27 most days, 25 on a good day, 28 on a bad day, and now I’m supposed to be 31? That’s just not ok with me.

It’s honestly not even that I’m upset about the number or that I feel like 31 is old. It’s that I feel like the world expects something of a 31-year-old woman that I’m simply not. I’m not married, I don’t have kids, I’m not even really all that career-driven, so I feel like there’s no place in society already carved out for me. I’m carving my own place.

Dear World,
I hope you have room for a 31-year-old woman who loves her job but doesn’t live and die for it, who wants to be married and have kids but hasn’t found the right guy, who is willing to sacrifice significantly to go on overseas adventures (and not exercise), and who loves who she is even though (or perhaps because?) she isn’t any of the things you think she ought to be. I hope you have room for me because I can’t be anyone else.

Love,
Beth