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 had a toddler and 6 month old twins. The plans for New York for my 30th were out the window so we went to euro Disney. Twins slept in the pushchair for most of the week and it was fab.

I was 30 in September 2017. 6 months later I got married to my partner of 5 years and I then fell pregnant.

30 was a great age for me!

I'd just split with my ex husband and he made me homeless the day before my 30th.

10 years on I'm with a new dh and 2 wonderful daughters.

Was living in California with a 4&1yr old, not working cos of visa issues but in utter turmoil over who I was, what I was worth, felt I’d achieved nothing bar having kids and as NONE of my peers still had DC I felt like it wasn’t an achievement. Worries I’d destroyed my career (I had to a certain extent but I’ve managed to move into a different area that’s less creative but more lucrative)

i was 40 last year and I can’t tell you how differently I feel - I still don’t feel I’ve “achieved” much but what that means has changed, I enjoy my quiet life and I have the big creative tick list things I want to get done but my focus is much more on my (now teenage) children than it was when they were younger, out of necessity really. Now my bucket list for life is for the rest of it, not chasing impossible dreams of being the top of my industry by 29zzz

Just a few weeks after a miscarriage so my 30th was depressing. In my head I would been sharing pregnancy news at my birthday

I was single, living and working overseas, living my best life.

I was a lone parent to a 7 year old.

I was vomiting in the toilets at the shard during my birthday meal as i was a few weeks pregnant then.

At 30, I had been living with dp for 5 years in a 2 bed flat in our medium sized town centre. No dc.

Worked hard all week, long hours, but loved my work at that time. Spent all our money at the weekends. No thoughts to home improvement, saving for house, saving for anything, just enjoying life.

I was still in the first company that I started working in at 19 as an operator and was, at 30, an IT operations lead with fantastic team members in Scotland, England and Switzerland.

career wise it went downhill with some restructuring, redundancies and uncertainty, but I had dc at 35 who became my focus and brought joy to my life, and my job was just my job, hated it and the people I worked for, but it paid the bills. At 44 I was made redundant, which terrified me after 24 years in the one place, but got a new job moved into different areas and things took off again work wise.

I had organised a big bash for my 30th with friends including a few bottles of bubbly at home, taxis to a restaurant then onto a VIP section of a nightclub. Basically a big expensive boozy night. I found out I was pregnant a few days before so spent the night stressing about how to not let on that I wasn't drinking. I remember being out dancing til all hours and stone cold sober but really really struggling not to smoke. I remember a few days later it hit me, I'm having a baby!! 30 was the age my life completely changed. I left some of the best parts of myself behind I think. Motherhood has been tough and I miss old me. She is long gone now, its been 16 years. I'd love to go back to planning a booze up now instead of sports training, dinner planning, homework etc.

I was probably sleeping when I turned 30.

I'd just moved to Sydney and had a party at my (then) partners place. It was a new romance, and mostly his friends as I didn't know anyone! I still felt young. It was fine. Turning 40 has been another matter altogether...I'm not enjoying it.

I was a single mum, skint, in a crappy rented flat earning peanuts in a job I hated.

A few months later I met now DH.

Now been happily married for years. I changed career, am in a great well paid job now, own our own beautiful home and have more children.

What you’re doing at 30 absolutely does not portend how the rest of your life is going to look like OP.

at 30 I was panicking that I would never have children or meet anyone to have said children with. So you are ahead of the game in my book! At 30 it is hard to imagine just how much life you have left. The 40's are great. Life gets sweeter as you age imo.

I was single and working in Birmingham in a job I loved and went out for a curry on my actual birthday with friends. Got very drunk in the pub after and returned to my shared house with my housemates, we still lived like students. House was a bit of a dump, I paid £30 per week inc bills. Unbeknown to me a work colleague at my curry and drinks would declare true love a few months later. I’m sat next to him right now drinking tea in a motorhome we hired having just watched the sunrise over a bay in Wales, that was 27 years ago.

It was a year of cocktails after work every Thursday in the city centre and loads of parties in Birmingham and London as I used to stay with friends in London every month. One worked in the fashion industry and the other worked as a graphic designer, they were girls I had gone to school with. They were my glam mates and had access to a very different world. I remember slamming tequilas mixed with bollinger at a party in Primrose Hill. One of the best memories was dancing at Notting Hill Carnival that year to Sancho Panza.

I had spent all of my twenties after university living and working abroad. I had also met and married my DH while doing so. In the year that I turned 30, we had decided to relocate back to the UK with a view to starting a family. So I quit my job, packed up my entire life and moved half way across the world to start all over again...found a new job, new home, new friends etc. It was all a bit of an adventure.

I also had a bit of time to travel in between, and my parents came to spend a month with us in the country where we had been living before we moved.

I remember that year as being a happy and exciting time, but also a bit scary as deciding to move back to the UK was a bit of a leap into the unknown - I quit my job with nothing to go to, moved to a place where we didn't know anyone, didn't know how I was going to readjust to being back in the UK, didn't know how DH was going to find living here etc. It was all fine in the end though!

I was in an unhappy marriage which I ended later in the year. Things took a turn for the better thereafter.

Unexpectedly Single- had just split up with by boyfriend of 11 years - who I'd just bought a house and car with (which took a bit of unravelling- esp as i couldn't drive). Spent my birthday with a good friend in Prague.
After that it was desperate single life- desperate as biological clock was ticking - but also fun as i got used to living by myself , seeing friends when i wanted and doing things that my ex had never wanted to do. I was working hard too
Looking back 20 years 30 seems so young...

I was just finishing off my MBA and bought myself a horse as a reward! I was single and living in my own house, good job. Very happy. Those were great days!

I don’t remember what I did for my actual birthday though, probably playing ponies.

Got a new job and moved to another country. Best thing I ever did for myself on several levels.

Pregnant with first child, just married and completing a puppy training trainer course on my actual birthday.