What were you doing when you were turning 30?…

[Whatsmyusername1235]

later on this year I am turning 30 and I am dreading it.
what were you doing with your life around the time you turned 30? I am nowhere near where I want to be and I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of years. 30 also sounds so serious all of a sudden whilst being in your 20’s doesn’t seem too bad if you aren’t exactly where you want to be in life.

I was dumped 4 days before my 30th. 4 months after we bought our dream house. I hated my job, wanted to start a family and generally felt like a complete failure moving back in with my parents at 30. It was impossible to imagine where I am now. It felt like a real blow when turning 30 but it actually ended up being the fresh start I needed and a kick to change the course of things.

I turned 30 during Covid. So I was very much life is on hold atm so made up for my last years of my 20s after. It's only in the last 6 months or so I've felt in my 30s

Turning 30 was amazing. Wasn't where I wanted to be in life but honestly had no fucks to give about that, and as the 30s have rolled on I have even less fucks to give. Enjoy it!

2 school aged children, happily married, just bought our first house. Was just starting to get a taste of freedom realising my life was actually just beginning (spent my 20s thinking it was over due to people telling me so as I had kids young) career was established but a little stagnant. I was happy albeit a little frustrated. Went on to flourish in my career in my 30s (as did DH) which equipped us with the financial freedom to do more than we've ever done before.

Having young kids can be tough, but there's a lot more waiting out there for you all when out of the slog stage!

Not realising that in just over a year my 'D'H would lie about having a major life changing health condition, then when people started to ask questions, pick a rich 'friend' of mine to run off with.
He holidayed abroad whilst I had 3 children to bring up on Income Support.
I got my life back eventually, but never recovered financially.

The day I turned 30, I had a 20 month old, a 4 day old and a 10 day old house. My birthday meal was a plate of meatballs in IKEA.

I had just left work to become a full time SAHM and didn't return to my career for the next 5 years.

I was extremely content with my life.

Diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 and celebrated my 30th while undergoing chemo. All the photos from my celebrations show my thinning hair and the PICC line used to deliver my chemo drugs.

5 years later I'm married, cancer-free, one toddler and another baby on the way. Life can change so quickly!

I didn’t like turning 30. It kickstarted a marriage I was not happy in and a hideous amount of stress that lasted 20 years: mortgages, money, growing up etc. however I also got PG when I was 30, which was a blessing.

fast forward to now I’m 50 and marriage has just ended and I feel like I can go back and pick up where I left off, but without any of the trappings and with a house, my lovely kids and a great job.

it stared an era of the most intense hard work, but I look back with no regrets as today I am blessed because of the sacrifices and work I put in during 30s and 40s.

I think I just knew at my 30th birthday party that things were gonna get very serious - and I was right to be worried, they did.

When I turned 30 I was in debt and had just had to give up my dream job as it was never going to pay me enough or give me the stability I needed, I was in a pretty bad place mentally. But I got myself a plan, got out of debt by 31, bought our first house and got engaged at 33, a completely new career at 34, married at 35, first kid at 38 and second is on the way just after my 40th

I dreaded turning 30 but seeing how much I achieved in my 30s I'm not worried about turning 40 now, just planning what to do with this decade!

I spent my 30th in Antarctica. I set a goal to visit every continent by the time I was 30!

Travelled around Asia with a friend.

Everyone feels like this at 30. By 40 everyone looks back and realises that they were still young. We swallow way too much bullshit about ages by which achievement must be crossed, but trust me, progress in life is not linear. It happens in bursts, and you only realise with hindsight. And there will be obstacles and derailments. The one good thing about aging is that it becomes easier to see the truth in Kipling's line about treating Triumph and Disaster all the same. And being able to take satisfaction in smaller things without comparing all the time to other people whom you imagine to be happier, richer, healthier - whatever. Happy birthday and good luck!

Married for a year, just a few months in to our TTC journey with no idea how much difficulty was to come.

Now 36 with a 1 year old, the light of my life and worth all of the money and medical intervention.

Moved into the house we bought together and began renovating it.
planned our secret wedding. Got married that year and told no one til the week before.
Was loving my job, loving life, had no kitchen and a pile of rubble in the brick living room.
Amazing 30th year!
Have fun, enjoy your youth and appreciate life.

We were engaged with a wedding a few weeks later. I earned £25K in a job that I hated working all hours. We lived in a tiny, damp, draughty 2 bed semi with a cat who I loved like a child. I was a size 6/8! I I remember it as a really happy time (despite the job!)

I should add that I'm 44 now and looking back I was basically still a child!

I never thought 30 was old. It was my favourite age. I looked and felt good. Confident and happy with myself. Enjoy it, op.

We had a massive house party for my birthday, that I still remember now. Soo many years later!

Living in London with my boyfriend. Good job and great social life. No real responsibilities. Happy time of my life .

I was married with a 9 year old and a 4 year old when I turned 30.

I was a SAHM.

I was a mess, addiction issues, no job, renting. Boyfriend had a job but a mess too.

23 years on we are happily married, I have my dream job, earn great money, have a fantastic daughter, live in lovely house in location I always dreamed of. And I had most of this by 36.

A lot can change if you put your heart into it. I started by defining my goals and visualising them then made a plan on how to achieve them.

Living in Barcelona with now-DH. Interesting job, great social life, enjoying the city.
Still doing the same job, different part of Spain, about to hit 50.
Life hasn't changed much apart from a sprog and a dog!
I've never had great life plans. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life at gcse-age, still don't today! Health, fed and bed.

Having a nervous breakdown. Literally ☹️ I was very very ill. But I came through it, got my arse to university and kept going through three degrees. It saved me! My thirties turned out to be the best years of my life although they certainly didn’t start that way.

I has a 2 yr old and a newborn, and was packing up our lives to move to the other side of the world.

My actual birthday was very depressing. My life was very far from my life goals, relationship going downhill, still at parents. Job stress. All my life goals started after age 33.

Was in my third house with my almost 3 year old and my husband was away a lot with work .Was quite a juggling act ,working as childcare was less available then .
Labour had just won the general election and it seemed that exciting times were ahead .
Children grown up now -rattling round in a big house as I kept moving up .
First husband long gone.
Don't feel any older ,just wiser and don't care what anyone thinks any more .