6 Cents on Turning 29-and-a-half

I admit that turning 30 for some reason was very hard for me. I had two beautiful healthy children, a husband, a house, a great job - even a great car. But ... for some reason I was having a hard time with turning the big 3-0. I took advantage of all the department stores' free makeovers and spent 100s upon 100s of dollars buying all the products that were demonstrated by Estee Lauder, Clinique, Elizabeth Arden (and the majority of it still fills my drawers and makeup bag 20+ years later).

In retrospect, I wonder, what was my problem? We all know it really wasn’t about make-up. Was I finally realizing that my childhood dreams of having a “baseball team”-sized family was gone by the wayside because of the choice I made in a husband? (I don’t mean that as negatively as that may sound; he just didn’t want any more children). Was I finally realizing that I was going to have to work for the rest of my life? (My childhood dream included staying home with my baseball-team-sized family.) Or was it simply asking myself the “is this all there is?” question and not liking my negative reply.

To this day I really don’t know what the problem was… but I do know, no other big decade - 40 or 50 -bothered me at all. Maybe I readjusted? Maybe I answered the question “is this all there is?” and, by the way, what I had was pretty fantastic. I mean, really what could be better than two beautiful healthy children? And everything else was really just icing on the cake. So… in my 30s I saw a pretty good-sized chunk of the world; in my 40s I found a little “something something”; and in my 50s, I found “Club 50” at Peebles Department Store for 20% off the first Tuesday of every month. And I am comfortable in my own skin – and I look fabulous and feel fabulous most of the time.

So… I’m looking forward to 60, because I know good things can happen - even late in the game.

But I guess this doesn’t address the angst my daughter feels about turning 29.5. What do I say to her and all the others like her who are having a hard time turning the big 3-0? I say, sit back, relax, enjoy the ride - because good things happen when you least expect it and maybe, for whatever reason, the universe has a bigger and better plan for you than you had for yourself.