how does it feel being 30?

Much the same as being 29 but with more people asking how it feels to be the age I am.

I am now entering my 31st year. Many people have done so before and many will do so after me but it still feels like it is something a bit special. Maybe it was my colleagues presenting me with a cake in the staff room on Friday morning, or maybe it's the two cards sitting on the mantelpiece from my family, or maybe it was the email I got from my internet service provider wishing my many happy returns and offering me some special birthday deals on things I don't need.

I have to say that the biggest difference between being 'in my twenties' and becoming a 'thirty something' is in perception. Let's face it - what major changes can happen in the few hours between going to bed at 29 years, 364 days and waking up at 30 years? The head of the English Dept did offer to carry out a bit of stage makeup on me to change my appearance tomorrow - maybe paint on a moustache or something - but the best I can really do to change my appearance for my new chronological classification is to wear my new tie. Definitely more a 30s kind of a tie than a 20s.

One sure sign I'm getting older is the onset on senility. This morning I got up, had a shower, brushed my teeth, squeezed some shaving gel into my hands... and promptly rubbed it through my hair. I don't know if I somehow mistook it for shampoo or whether I, subconsciously, felt I should shave my head. Either way it's a disturbing action. Could it be age related?
Sometimes, in our eagerness to categorise things, we create boundaries. The problem with boundaries is that they are very narrow things to separate vastly different things. Imagine what life would be like in our little Island if the border wasn't so much a line between two countries and more like a slow gradient of levels of Irishness. People could admit to watching RTE more than the BBC yet still prefer Roast Beef to Irish Stew - Petrol prices could gradually get cheaper rather than jumping suddenly either side of the Foyle - so many problems solved in such a simple way.

My pupils don't see it that way though. A 29 year old teacher is still a young teacher - inexperienced yet approachable whereas a 30 year old teacher is old guard - old fashioned but authoritative. Well, usually. When I ask them what age they think I am they tend to say 45. Yeah, thanks for that.