2 weeks from yesterday, I will be 35. While I'm delighted to be on an age divisible by 5 (what? I like that number), officially hitting my mid-thirties is throwing me for a bit of a loop.
On the eve of my 30th birthday, I called a friend who is slightly older than me and asked if I was supposed to wake up wise the next day. She assured me that 30 was just a number and that I could go on being my usual self. If I'd only known what that year would hold for me, I would have laughed in her ear just a little. (pregnancy, baby birthing, relocation, etc. etc. etc.) Waking up officially wise would have been sort of nice.
35 is one of those ages where I'm feeling the pressure to check things off a list. Am I where I should be in life? Beyond that? Not quite there yet? I feel like I'm exactly where I should be in my career. I'm about the average age of the moms at preschool (though they all think I'm the youngest, thank you, baby face). I feel neither matronly nor horribly immature for my age. My mind and body are certainly cueing me into the fact that YES, you are getting older.
I had a weird moment the other day while I was driving home from work. 35 was the age my OBGYN in NYC threw out as the absolute deadline for having more kids. And though that ship sailed long ago, actually hitting that age sort of brought it to the forefront of my mind again.
Things I like about this age are: the fact that I can let go of things so much easier than I ever could before, priorities are obvious, routines are more or less established, and I don't have to ever wear tight-fitting clothes again if I don't want to. Things I could do without: Tight-fitting clothes would not look as good as they once did, OMG grey hairs and wrinkles, dry skin, high blood pressure, being called "ma'am" by the kid bagging my groceries.
Like it or not, I guess the big 3-5 is coming my way and I may as well embrace it. I choose to revel in the fact that I'm in relatively good health, I have enough energy to run around in the yard with my son, my husband still thnks I'm pretty, I have money in the bank and food on the table, and I'm lucky enough to have both my parents, both my in-laws and both my grandmas still with me. And the fact that I look about 24 doesn't hurt.
But check back with me when I'm 2 weeks away from 40.
35 will look great on you! I love you, sweet girl. (Can't believe I have a 35-year-old daughter since I'm only 33! I'm going by B.J.'s age, you know.) ;)
Posted by: J | January 31, 2012 at 02:56 PM
Way to have a good attitude about it!
I do laugh at the fact that 35 is "advanced maternal age" though. It is just the thought that 35 is OLD for women to have babies, when today I think it is very common.
And I do agree that numbers that end in 0 are a little scarier than numbers that end in 5. The 5s are just scary because you are on the downhill side to the 0s....
Posted by: AJU5's Mom | February 01, 2012 at 09:33 AM
You are going to celebrate 35 years of being absolutely fabulous. And that's nothing to shake a stick at.
Hope January was good to you, *****. {Edited for marginally explicit content :)}
Posted by: rkmama | February 01, 2012 at 09:12 PM
You will be an amazing 35! I can tell these things, you know. :)
You know what's a horrible age? 39. Which I will be in a little over a month. The last year of my thirties. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?
I'm thinking about developing a mid-life crisis.
(PS, I miss you!)
Posted by: andifoo | February 04, 2012 at 02:12 AM
35 is fantastic. I am 8 months in and loving it. Except for the skin - ew, noticed any wrinkles/sagginess over your knees yet? If not, DON'T LOOK! That's my best advice for a 35 year old. Enjoy the last two weeks of 34. Which sounds too much like a bra size and not enough like anything divisible by a cool number:)
Posted by: eva | February 04, 2012 at 06:28 PM