30.
I turned 30 this week. To be true, I don’t even know why I am
writing this post. Maybe it’s because 30 is a so-called milestone. Maybe because
I am loving the idea of calling myself a 30 year old.
When
I sit to write a post, I always have an idea as to how I want the post to turn
out to be. Today, I have none. So this is going to be my first unedited post.
Yep. No cuts, no pastes, no edits. I write while I am still drunk on the
thoughts of being 30.
Do
I want this post to be something like - what wrong things I have done in my
twenties? Or what lessons I learnt? May be the good times I had? The regrets of
things not done? I have no idea. So I am just going to write whatever comes to
mind. May be all of it. May be none.
I
also know that I am not going to be a changed person suddenly. I shall not
suddenly start showing different personality traits. Because the changes in you
as a person happen only when you are not looking for them. That’s what you call
growing up I guess.
When
I look at the last decade, all I see is naivety and passion. The naivety of
believing in people and passion of loving them with all my heart. I lived the
last decade with so much precaution. Doing all the right things. Behaving the
way I was supposed to behave. Shielding my heart from hurt. A life without
risks. A life with caution. But that’s the worst part of it. Even the life
lived with least friction couldn’t stop me from getting myself wounded. I was
broken and bruised, tired and tattered. I got hurt and didn’t walk for some
time. But eventually I did. Eventually. One step at a time.
Whatever
I am today, I am because of the falls. And I wouldn’t trade my current self for
my younger self at any cost. I don’t want to go back to being what I was. When
I heard older ones say this, I used to laugh. Why would anybody not want their
younger selves? I mocked thinking this was like the sour grapes incident. You
can’t have your youth back? So why not say you don’t need it anymore.
But
when I say this today that I don’t want to go back to being a younger version
of myself, I say it with conviction that only comes with age. I know I sound
like I am 60. But that’s the truth of it. I never thought I could write such a
pensive post. I never thought I would write serious things about me on the blog. And
yet I sit here doing the same.
I
don’t wish to preach people in their twenties anything. We all know there are
enough posts about the topic and some of them are really good. Plus I am not
somebody who is good at advices. To each his own. That’s what I believe.
In
the societal version of myself, I should have been settled in a marital bliss
by now. But I am not. And I don’t regret it one bit. I know I would do that eventually
but not because it is the right thing to do in the eyes of the society but
because I would want to.
If
I had to say something to my younger self, it would be this.
- Read. Read whatever you can lay your hands on. Read because you are going to love it. Read because sometimes it would be the only thing that would save you from drowning. So read.
- The second advice to myself would be this – Take risks. At the most it would turn out to be a wrong turn. But so what? It would at least add to the experience.
- Travel a bit more. That’s one thing you haven’t done at all. So go for it.
So
if the above is what I wanted to do with my last decade, I hope I shall be able
to do the same in the next. So when I sit down to write a post a decade later,
I hope I would have followed the above and will have new advice to give to
myself. That is of course if I am still around that time ;)
Now
that I have given advice to my younger self, let me share some for my future
self too. Like let me just say what I want to do next. I don’t know how much of
it will actually work out, but still, here we go.
- Learn to express yourself. I know, that coming from a writer is weird. But yeah, I suck at expressing myself in person. Whether it’s expressing love or being assertive.
- Be the badass that you have never been. Don’t take shit. Give it right back to those who deserve it.
- Indulge yourself a bit. You’re worth it.
I
don’t know if this post makes any sense to you. Its unstructured and all that. I don’t know if it would make
sense to me if I read it again some time later. All I know right now is that I am
30 and I am loving it ;)
