30s — Blog — Healy Chen

It's my birthday

Today is my birthday. For moment I had to do some calculations to remember I am turning 34 years of age. It seems since turning 30, you don’t really keep precise track of how old you are. The entire decade of your 30s is just one giant blob. Only when it’s time for the big 40 will there be another existential crisis and reckoning. Much like how turning 30 was.

No need to lament getting older; it’s part of the natural process. It sure beats the opposite: death. A bit morbid, yes, but that’s how I like to keep things in perspective. I’m immensely grateful for another full turn of the calendar.

10 years ago when I turned 24 I wrote that I would play for the next decade. Once I turn 34, I will settle down and get serious about being an adult. Well, here I am 10 years later, and all I can say is: don’t make goals and predictions that far out into the future. What does “settling down” even mean anyways? Domesticity is definitely not something I want nor ready for. I’ve only barely moved out of my parents’ house last year! I’m enjoying the single and alone life quite well at the moment.

I bought a whole plate of poké from Costco yesterday and ate it all by myself. Tell me if that’s not the dream.

Besides, these last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic definitely put the timeline (so to speak) on pause. It’s partly why I forgot how old I was turning today. What chance is there to properly celebrate birthdays when it isn’t safe to gather together? No matter how much we’ve improved or what skill we learned during these times, the coronavirus era is definitely lost years.

What I’m saying is: that pseudo pledge I made 10 years ago? Doesn’t count! Not yet, anyways: I need at least two years tacked on top. Cheers to many more returns.

Short birthday thoughts

In this most extraordinary of years, I nearly forgot that it is my birthday in two days. I am turning 33, which symbolically doesn’t really mean anything within the social schema of significant birth milestones. It’s just another tick in the box until I hit the big four oh. Not for awhile, thankfully.

Society puts certain demands on you in relations to how old you are, doesn't it? By the time we hit our thirties, we’e suppose to have our careers figured out, with steady amount of money, and the beginnings of family starting. Well, I can honestly say I’ve not achieve any of those things. I’ve only just moved out of my parents’ house this year! Something that, by the socially-accepted standards of American culture, has been overdue for a decade.

I go at my own pace, obviously. And so does my friends: only one couple out of the group is married with kids. The rest are getting there ever so slowly. Not me, of course: I am still on my traveling and spending money on cars phase of life. With 2020 being a sort of lost year due to the global pandemic, there’s much catching up to do once the COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out to the masses. Life seemingly have hit a paused button - while the video is still rolling - and I'm looking forward to resuming my previously scheduled programing.

That will hopefully be what age 33 will be about: a resumption of normalcy. I am as prepared as possible, having finally moved out on my own this year. I feel like I’ve already reached the next stage of life, so therefore 33 will be a time for acclimatizing to this new arrangement and see what other changes it may permeate to. Because as of this writing, we are all still confined to our homes, waiting.

I sincerely thank the higher powers for this gift of another year of life. Let’s get after it and make it count.