Sitting in a rainy co-worker smoke break at the mall entrance today, I surprised myself.  It wasn’t that I was doing anything so spectacular or beautiful or stunning.  It wasn’t even that I was doing anything stupid or embarrassing or cheap.  No, I was proudly displaying my age badge.

We were having a conversation about some mid-twenty’s troubles (boys, weird health issues, retail stress) and I chimed in saying, “When I was twenty-four…”  One of the girls chirped, “Oh, so long ago” to which I proudly replied, “I’m twenty-nine.”  And my eyes sternly said the rest.  She was quiet and listened to my yes, oh so wisened wisdom.

The rest of the meaning in my eyes was that five years really does make a difference.  Things smooth out with the guys, you get a hold of your health (if you haven’t already; I hadn’t at 24), and you stop stressing about how your manager doesn’t know what she’s doing.  You go with the flow.

Unlike P.H. who consistently says, “I’m thirty now.  It’s time to start growing up.” I believe the time to start growing up is generally eighteen and you should be finished by the time you’re thirty, at the latest.  Most girls I know in their mid-twenties have real jobs and careers ahead of them, but then something dramatic happens and they really solidify their grown-up selves.

Big events that have impacted girls I’ve known ages 23-25: marriage, first real-man boyfriend, a significant break up, terrible health issues like inexplicable daily vomiting for a year, a promotion, resigning for the first time from a stressful job, graduate school begins, graduate school ends, moving back with parents, moving out of parents’ house (again), moving to an unknown city for a guy, first no-roommate apartment, and transcontinental single living…In fact, these things have happened to multiple girls I’ve known.

So when I’m twenty-nine and chatting with a group of colorful, stressed out, mid-twenty’s girls, I am proud to be able to tell them to hang in there.  Keep your head up and your heart soft.  Make the changes now.  Now is the time; this is the age for troubling troubles so go ahead and deal with it.  You’re growing in ways you’ve never expected.

What surprised me most today about myself was the ease with which I shared my age.  I’ve known these girls for over a year and I never told them my age (expect for the one who is twenty-eight, so she doesn’t count).  But somehow today, I was okay with it.  In fact, I almost said, “I’m thirty.”

(Maybe I should say that anyway, just to practice.)