It is official! I am now afflicted with the disease “thirty-ritis”, two weeks after a certain journalist! Traditionally, thirty for a man is the age when a flower blossoms, but thirty for a woman is when the flower starts to wilt. Thirty is the age of glory for a man, but thirty is the age where a woman is “over the hill”.
After all, between the ages of twenty to thirty, a woman had been moulded by society to graduate, find a job, find a man, get hitched, and have at least two kids by the age of thirty. To a man, that is the age when his career is at the peak, after army life, university, starting out. So thirty is usually the age when he starts thinking of settling down.
Not so for a woman. By the time she is thirty and still single, she is as good as being left on the shelf. Men her age have a pool of younger, prettier and more fertile ladies to choose from. Her career may be at the peak, but her personal life may be in a mess. She may be desolate, isolated, lonely, thus focus all her energy into her job, making people’s lives a living hell. Hence the term “old maid”.
But not for a modern woman. A modern, educated, professional woman will view thirty as the new twenty. In her twenties, she would have her fair share of starting outs – be it in career or relationships. She would have a rocky time in various aspects. She would have been emotional, idealistic, dreamy, ditsy, full of zest for the world but being let down by the ugliness the world which she loved dished out to her. She starts freaking out over her looks and figure, which is an irony because the twenties are when a woman is about the prettiest.
Then when she turns thirty, she will look back at the last ten years and wondered about the many mistakes she made, the tears she shed, the regrets, the bittersweet memories. And she is all the more determined to live life to the fullest, to be the epitome of the modern sassy woman, to feel beautiful inside and out. She exudes a certain charm and confidence which she never had in her twenties, but manages to attain the moment she turns thirty. She finds herself getting more attractive and loving every minute of it!
Thirty to me is a new stage of life. Looking back over the past decade, I have had a rather colourful ten years. Ups, downs, happiness, sadness, with the years flitting by with nary a dash of worry. Yet now I feel my life is only just beginning – a new decade, new opportunities, new challenges, new perspectives. The twenties were a time of experimenting, of learning from mistakes, of growing up, of maturing.
Whatever bad things that happened to me, I had it all (almost) in my twenties. Struggles with identity, job hopping, heartbreaks, broken relationships, cheated of love and money, almost bankrupt, major sickness. I was at the peak of fertility, and now, judging from how my body functions, I am no longer at the peak, which makes me worry if I can still conceive if and when that happens. I was at the peak of brain power where I could learn and retain things fast, but now, I find myself slowing down a little, although with a bit more experience that I can relate to.
Thus, the next decade will be when things turn around, when good things happen instead of bad. The thirties will be a time of maturity, of charm, zest, experience, beauty. It will be ten years of being beautiful and confident, of handling life matters effectively and taking things in stride, instead of taking flight or being silent at the first sign of trouble.
Turning thirty for a woman is a good age, because it will be the age when she has been through certain experiences and grown from them, the age when her career is stable and the age when she is ready and willing to commit, the age when she knows what it is like to be in and how to handle a relationship and a marriage. She will no longer be a little girl but a real sophisticated woman! I am sure looking for great times ahead in the next ten years!
After all, between the ages of twenty to thirty, a woman had been moulded by society to graduate, find a job, find a man, get hitched, and have at least two kids by the age of thirty. To a man, that is the age when his career is at the peak, after army life, university, starting out. So thirty is usually the age when he starts thinking of settling down.
Not so for a woman. By the time she is thirty and still single, she is as good as being left on the shelf. Men her age have a pool of younger, prettier and more fertile ladies to choose from. Her career may be at the peak, but her personal life may be in a mess. She may be desolate, isolated, lonely, thus focus all her energy into her job, making people’s lives a living hell. Hence the term “old maid”.
But not for a modern woman. A modern, educated, professional woman will view thirty as the new twenty. In her twenties, she would have her fair share of starting outs – be it in career or relationships. She would have a rocky time in various aspects. She would have been emotional, idealistic, dreamy, ditsy, full of zest for the world but being let down by the ugliness the world which she loved dished out to her. She starts freaking out over her looks and figure, which is an irony because the twenties are when a woman is about the prettiest.
Then when she turns thirty, she will look back at the last ten years and wondered about the many mistakes she made, the tears she shed, the regrets, the bittersweet memories. And she is all the more determined to live life to the fullest, to be the epitome of the modern sassy woman, to feel beautiful inside and out. She exudes a certain charm and confidence which she never had in her twenties, but manages to attain the moment she turns thirty. She finds herself getting more attractive and loving every minute of it!
Thirty to me is a new stage of life. Looking back over the past decade, I have had a rather colourful ten years. Ups, downs, happiness, sadness, with the years flitting by with nary a dash of worry. Yet now I feel my life is only just beginning – a new decade, new opportunities, new challenges, new perspectives. The twenties were a time of experimenting, of learning from mistakes, of growing up, of maturing.
Whatever bad things that happened to me, I had it all (almost) in my twenties. Struggles with identity, job hopping, heartbreaks, broken relationships, cheated of love and money, almost bankrupt, major sickness. I was at the peak of fertility, and now, judging from how my body functions, I am no longer at the peak, which makes me worry if I can still conceive if and when that happens. I was at the peak of brain power where I could learn and retain things fast, but now, I find myself slowing down a little, although with a bit more experience that I can relate to.
Thus, the next decade will be when things turn around, when good things happen instead of bad. The thirties will be a time of maturity, of charm, zest, experience, beauty. It will be ten years of being beautiful and confident, of handling life matters effectively and taking things in stride, instead of taking flight or being silent at the first sign of trouble.
Turning thirty for a woman is a good age, because it will be the age when she has been through certain experiences and grown from them, the age when her career is stable and the age when she is ready and willing to commit, the age when she knows what it is like to be in and how to handle a relationship and a marriage. She will no longer be a little girl but a real sophisticated woman! I am sure looking for great times ahead in the next ten years!
