Not 30 under 30 as in the Famous Magazine

Social pressure has never been easy for people over 25 and under 30, unless they are already on the waiting list to be photographed and featured in some articles and magazines. But let's take a closer look, is it society or the voices in your head that burdened and annoyed you, you may have heard and been inspired so many times by Instagram or TikTok posts that "you don't have to worry and figure everything out now" or perhaps "everyone has their timeline", well, does that work for your circumstances? The answer is yes and no. For me, yes, for a specific and short period of time, and no, because they are just words for me to make excuses. I have just turned 29 and am about to join the Standard Life in Thirty Club. It's a club where you sort of have to sign up to have a well-paid job - not just a job, but your dream job - someone to look after you and each other for the rest of your life, with a little silver or gold or diamond on your finger as proof and tangible assets to support your life on earth, or just called a house and a car.

28th Birthday Cake

Twenty-seven, twenty-eight and then twenty-nine. Numbers that made me think and discover who I really am, what I want to do, what I can really do and what sources I have to support my passion. Then passion emerges as a critical question that triggers the voices in my head. For example, how does it feel to do a Masters in the field you are very passionate about on a scholarship, but then end up getting a job that is not what you expected or planned? How does it feel to take a drifting turn away from what you were focusing on because you speculated that it was a corridor to the door? How does it feel to have a career always come first because your - what you think of as - unfinished business - takes precedence over your love life? How do I ask myself such complex questions that I don't even know why they happened in the first place? Well, they're still questions and the voices won't go away unless I go to bed. They bother me completely and all my decisions have no strong position. The last question I might have an answer to is how do I get over it? I let it be. I sharpened myself to be ready when the silver lining appeared.

The last question that perhaps I have an answer to, is how do I overcome this? I let them be. I sharpened myself to be ready when the silver lining comes to the surface.

Some tips I found recently. Surround yourself - intensely - with people who have the same circumstances as you, so that you can have some brainstorming sessions with them, as they are in the same shoes as you, with wise people who seem to have ticked your unchecked boxes, so that you can get some insights and create a new point of view that might be part of the puzzle of your answered questions. Last but not least, keep your feet on the ground, for you continue to be grateful. What you have complained about, others may not even dare to dream about.

29th Birthday Cake

Thanks to the time that the pandemic has given me to reflect, it is not the judgement of society or perhaps a large family that I really need to take care of, but myself. A very strong spirit that can motivate you to reach your peak or burn your dreams to the ground. Draw a proper, wise and standard line of "enough". Because being under 30 and whatever you have achieved, you deserve to be featured in a magazine, your own life magazine. Filled with stories, good and bad, on every page. I keep writing "you" as if I'm giving advice, well, these are four paragraphs of stories from me to me, you reader, feel free to take some.