Dirty Thirty Thoughts

I kicked off my 20s with friends, food and booze in the south of France. I finished them off with friends, food and booze just across the water in Algeria, with an almost-full moon rising over the water. Life’s not too bad, folks!

It’s always weird to know what to do for my birthday, especially when I’m in a new place with new people. So I sent out an email to a handful of fun people (OK, maybe a couple of handfuls of people), suggesting a low-key evening of drinks on my balcony.

Then I find out that it’s ALSO the birthday of the other American who lives in my building, and his friend was going to throw him a small party too. So obviously the only logical conclusion is to combine our “small” parties and create one big party! Mission accomplished. The punch was flowing, which apparently led to a dance-off on the landing (I missed this, sadly, while I was entertaining guests outside). Turns out when people have a dance-off without putting their cups of punch down, you end up with a really sticky floor.

Despite the stickiness, it was a lovely evening, with only minimal consequences the next morning. 🙂 Here’s to hoping for the same enthusiasm, friends, and frivolity when “the big 4-0” rolls around. (Or “the big 3-7” or “the big 3-3”)!

Concluding thought: milestone birthdays are what you want them to be. For me, it’s not about the number, but rather about my degree of satisfaction in life at the time “the big X-X” is reached. If I’m feeling negative about my life in general around the time of a birthday, then the fact that I’m getting older seems like something to be concerned about. If I’m relatively content with the trajectory I’m on, getting older just doesn’t matter. 28, for example, was eh. The job was fine, but completely lacked any forward momentum, and I found out the day before my birthday that I didn’t get invited to my second crack at the Foreign Service Oral Assessment. So that made 28 kinda blech.

BUT, cut to 5 months later, I get an offer from my FIRST crack at the Foreign Service test, forward momentum skyrockets, and suddenly 28 doesn’t seem so old.

2 years later, and I’m still riding high on the Foreign Service thing, which promises a plethora of options and too many potential career trajectories to count. Throw in a crowd of good people, lots of love from back home, and “the big 3-0” is pretty great!