Our 20’s are a whirlwind: Graduating post-secondary, getting your first ˜real’ job, your first ˜real’ boyfriend¦ and then seemingly overnight you find yourself receiving invitations to Flirty Thirty bashes, and everyone is proclaiming this decade to be the new that decade. For some, the job becomes a career, that boyfriend becomes a life partner, and they find themselves spending more time looking online for that perfect townhouse than trolling the ShopBop.com designer sale section.
For others, the transition is a bit more difficult. Here are some signs that your denial about leaving your 20’s is as obvious as that g-string sticking out the back of your Paige jeans.
Check any of the following that may apply:
You change jobs with the seasons
Unless you are a roofer or a landscaper, there is no reason to not be holding down a gig for longer than it takes for the leaves to change. In your 20’s you learn to check under the bathroom stalls before bad-mouthing the boss lady at work, and you pay the painful price for heading straight in to work after a long weekend in Vegas sans sleep. Try to commit to a paying gig that does not involve wearing an apron or a visor, and may actually include health benefits.
Your ˜going clubbing’ wardrobe and work wardrobe are interchangeable.
No matter what those lady-mags try to pass off as day-to-night wear, sparkles, cleavage, mesh, and short, skin tight anything will definitely get attention, just not the kind of attention that gets a girl promoted to anything except ˜headliner’. Try to project the image that you could take on a client meeting at a moment’s notice “ in the boardroom, not the Champagne Room.
You still have a ˜going clubbing’ wardrobe.
See above.
You choose drinks with friends over groceries, weekly.
In your 20’s the jar of peanut butter + a value-pack of instant noodles diet meant lots of money left over at the end of the week for cocktails and cover at the bar. But if you still find yourself counting the tomato juice and celery in your Caesar as meeting your weekly fruit & veg requirement, you may need to reconsider your priorities. Try inviting your friends over for a BYOB party at your place – with any luck you’ll have enough left over apps to supplement your weekday lunches.
You wear LipSmackers.
Sure, they’re crazy cheap and they taste delicious, but slathering on some Dr.Pepper-flavoured children’s gloss is more likely to get you chosen for a slow dance in the elementary school gym than an invite to that exclusive film-fest after party. Do you really want to remind your guy of his awkward adolescence every time he leans in for a kiss? Try to embrace the fact that you don’t have to wait for your make-up to appear in your Christmas stocking and splurge on some adult beauty products.
The funny thing about denial is that although we may be fooling ourselves, we’re not actually fooling anyone else. In the same way that wearing the correct size clothes can make you look thinner, wearing quality clothing that you didn’t buy 2-for-$10 and using age-appropriate beauty products can actually make you look younger.
Change your own perception of what a 30-year-old looks like and you’ll be pleasantly surprised that the perception of others around you will change (for the better) as well.
