How Do You Know When You're Approaching Thirty?

Okay, we've all seen those email lists with the signs to watch out for. The one that seems especially apt to me is:

Sure, you have more money, but everything you want to buy costs between $200 and $300.

To which I would add:

You can finally afford all those things you've always wanted...but now, you are too old for them.

When I was a young Goth (I don't think I was ever a Baby Goth really, though some may disagree) I used to suffer from terrible shopping envy. There were so many cool things in the shops I wanted, and as an instant-noodle-eating, op-shop-dressing student, I couldn't afford any of them. Fast forward all these years, and I can afford to buy most things I want. Well, on Saturday, wandering through the shops in Newcastle, what I wanted was the Emily the Strange flight bag I saw in Hot Property, you can see why...



So I bought it. (It cost a lot less than between $200 and $300, by the way). And I'm glad I did. It's roomy, it's covered in velvet, it's...too young for me! What am I doing with something from Emily the Strange? I don't understand what it is, only to gather that I'm at least five years too old for the whole thing. Even the Emily the Strange website looks confusing to my aged eyes. I'm an administrative professional, I feel like I'm nearly forty most of the time, and no matter how I dress in my spare time, I spend most of my time crunching numbers at a workstation, crunching numbers, wearing a suit with my hair tied up...

It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately - have I sold out? Okay, that phrase is taking it all rather too seriously. But I've drifted so far away from my youthful dreams and ideals. How did a lefty, arty type who was determined to be a writer, end up like this? Okay, I took this job initially because it was the best thing on offer at the time; I never intended it to last, but I did, and now I worry about my career path and superannuation and getting into the property market, and what worries me is that it doesn't really bother me. I don't despair about my life, I'm quite content with it (I guess the mid-life crisis is still a little way away!). Have I grown up, or have I given up? Does this happen to everybody at this age or is it just me? Surely not; whilst my impression at twenty may have been that all Goths ended up being DJs, or running cool shops, or writing for street mags (HINT: if you're 26 and don't want to be reminded of your advanced years, do not read 3D World; you will feel so out of touch, you'll need to go buy shoes with zippers), logically that's not the case; many must forge corporate careers. Hmn. I think I might go looking for them.

~~~~~

Lastly, I've started a map on Frappr, and when I've got a few people on it, I'll put the map up here! So if you'd like to be my friend (Please? Please?) send me a message. You will need to sign up if you haven't already, but there is a blogmad group! Also, I'm adding a few blogs to my "Blogs of REAL note" list, so please go check them out...

EDIT: Firefox users have reported that my left-content background colour wasn't showing for them (so that all posts appeared as black on dark purple). So I've changed the background colour slightly. Please let me know if this works!

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