Over the past year or so a few of my friends have turned twenty-four. Every time one of these neatly divisible birthdays comes around I write the same thing on their birthday cards next to my poorly-drawn picture of a cactus in a sombrero: the day you turn twenty-four is the halfway point of the prime of your life. Halfway between eighteen and thirty, it’s all downhill from here.
Of course, as everyone I’ve mentioned this to who has already crossed over into the indistinct realms of thirtysomethinghood has vigorously attested, that’s ridiculous. My stepmum Jenny tells me she’s only now in her prime! While this was said in an attempt to reassure us both, now that my Hallmark wisdom has come back to haunt me I can’t help but note this birthday as significant in some way. At the least it brings my mind back to Prague, which I left just three months ago feeling a bit more grown up.
I’m not sure yet how I feel about that.
28 April, 2010 at 2:29 am
Downhill is more fun than up