Entering your 30s is not as bad as some people make it out to be. Yes, yours truly is officially 30 as of June of this year. And, as an actual 30-something, I have to say nothing's drastically changed. Children have been calling me "ma'am" for several years now, hangovers were never really easy for me even when I was younger, and I still haven't been a guest at any wedding.
But maybe I'm just that type of person; I've never made New Year's resolutions and didn't go out drinking on my 18th birthday. I do, however, notice that I'm starting to like some adult hobbies and activities that seemed ridiculous before. I often find myself browsing real estate websites, I've even taken up cycling and bought some fancy equipment, and I enjoy knitting at home by the television more and more. Is this what getting old feels like?
The @30somethingaf meme page was created by Sarah Pilger. She has been entertaining us, 30-somethings, on Instagram from 2017, and has amassed a following of 402k in the process. Back in 2022, when we covered the page the first time, Sarah told us that she always had a comedic streak, and a meme page was a great way to be funny on the internet.
"Memes and gifs were just getting started and I found myself looking at them thinking of other captions I would use that were funnier to me. I've always been interested in comedy and if I could go back in time, I would have pursued a career in writing for stand-up, sketch comedy or satirical sitcoms," Sarah told us in 2022.
Sarah said that she creates about what she knows; usually, what she finds funny, her audience deems relatable as well. She told Bored Panda that 30-somethings are people who are "learning to adult." "Some are family-focused, some are career-driven, some still have Peter Pan syndrome, and others are just plain lost in the growth they are expected to experience," she told us previously.
For Sarah, our 30s are the time when we finally understand what we want, not what others want of us. "Whether it's material items, travel, children, investing or even more extreme partying, doors are opened that we didn't have in our 20s. We also have way more autonomy than we did in our 20s, which is good and bad. With more responsibility comes more freedom, but the opposite is also true."
"I think people in their 30s are a lot smarter than we get credit for," Sarah shared with us in 2022. "We graduated college during the Great Recession and are still succeeding. We are the oldest portion of the millennial generation, which often gets a bad rap. While we do fall victim to the urge for instant gratification, we are also the leaders of our generation [who] have set an achievable and commendable standard," she believes.
There's more scientific evidence that your 30s might be your happiest decade. A 2012 survey by insurer Aviva asked 2,000 adults what is the best age to be, and the average came out to be 35. By that age, many people said they had reached certain milestones, but still had many good years ahead of them.
