Turning 30

On October 27, 2008 I turned 29 years old, and it became painfully apparent to me that I was going to turn 30 on my next birthday. I think I went through the usual stages of grief ...



Denial - "There is no f-ing way I am going to turn 30. I'm only 29 now. Still in my 20's, albeit my late 20's. I don't look 30. Everyone thinks I am in my early 20's. It is a whole year away. I am still in the same demographic as 26 year olds. This will not really happen, not to me, maybe to everyone else I graduated with, but not me. I still get carded dammit!"



Anger - "F- you. Who says I have to turn 30? Make me. You can't."



Bargaining - I spent days online researching various paths of travel that would allow me to skip an entire day, obviously October 27, 2009, and thus would not actually turn 30 since the day never actually existed for me. This is an ongoing effort to prevent this approaching catastrophe!



Depression - (after a post-shower full mirror exam) "Holy Shit. I am 29 and have the thighs of a 30 year old, ass too. I might as well eat a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. What do I have to lose?" (answer after spending 8 months in this stage: 20 pounds).



Acceptance - Please refer back to the anger stage and repeat.



As I am going through these stages, I am also engaging in another process, reflection. I realized that I have not accomplished all that I thought I would by the time I turned 30. I never went to law school, have not seen every continent, have not appeared on Oprah, and am far from becoming a millionaire.



So, I made a decision. Which also brings us to the point of this blog. I decided that even if I must turn 30 (which is still debatable, see the bargaining stage) that I reject, I do not accept, the notion of what turning 30 so often means in our society. I decided that I would do something.



And now for the crazy part... the doing part...I decided I would run the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon which will take place two days before my 30th birthday. Yes, that is 26.2 miles. Yes, I am probably crazy. No, I am not 30...yet.