People get too hung up on age. However, it seems like the older you get, the less it matters. One of the best observations I've seen on age in pop culture was the "Murtaugh" episode of How I Met Your Mother, link here: How I Met Your Mother. What the show is about, is the Danny Glover character in the Lethal Weapon movies, named Roger Murtaugh, and his catchphrase, "I'm gettin' too old for this shit." Of course, since it's network TV, and the central premise is the narrator explaining the story of how he met their mother to his kids, "stuff" was substituted for "shit." During the course of the show, one character makes a "Murtaugh" list as it were, of things that at 30, you are "too old" to do, like attend a rave, pierce your ear, help someone move furniture four flights of stairs, etc., and a sort of "anti-Murtaugh" list is made by another character of things that you are too young to do at 30, such as wait six rings to answer the phone, wear reading glasses, eat dinner at 4, go to bed at 7, etc.
The take-home lesson they eventually realized was that while Roger Murtaugh was consistently spouting his catchphrase, "I'm gettin' too old for this shit," HE WENT AHEAD AND DID IT ANYWAY. I've never felt like I was too old to do something, and even if I did, I did it anyway, much like Murtaugh. When I started thinking about going back to school to do prerequisites, I was 28. Now I'm 30 and my prerequisites are finished, but I'm waiting a year to apply. I did at times think, "Okay, maybe I am too old for this shit," and someone reading this may think that too, but unless you have been featured by Willard Scott on the Today Show for your last birthday, there has probably been someone older that has gone down this non-trad path to medicine successfully before you. You're not too old. A lot of it comes down to your outlook on life and how well you take care of yourself.
What did I do for my birthday? I had originally planned to eat at the chef's table at this wonderful restaurant in the DC area, but unfortunately it didn't work out, and I ended up getting an early dinner with one of my sisters and doing a low-key thing. I figured maybe I'll have a blow-out when I'm 40. That may be better anyway, because looking forward from 30, at 40 I hope to either be done with residency (if it's three or four years), or nearly done with it (if it's five or if I end up doing some kind of fellowship after a three/four year residency), and that would definitely be cause for celebration and the proverbial "pulling out all the stops." Today I finally did the real "family" celebration with both of my sisters, my brother-in-law, my nephews, and my neighbors, who were really like a second pair of parents growing up. My sister made meat loaf, which is without a doubt my favorite dish, and what my mom always made for me on my birthday, so it was nice to keep that tradition going even as Mom is no longer with us. There was also cake, which my sister laughed about and my neighbors kept giving me shit about. I'll explain that in a second, I am going to grab a drink.
Okay, so yesterday I went up to National Harbor in Maryland. It was my friend's birthday that I had worked with in the intellectual property field, which I had worked in before going back to school. She is also turning 30, and her birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Courtney, if you're reading this! Anyway, our birthdays are two weeks apart and we went out to Ketchup at National Harbor, and when we were initially seated it was Courtney, another girl, and me, and one of the appetizers was a "Threesome" - it is three types of fries - waffle fries, sweet potato fries & seasoned curly fries, and six types of Ketchup - normal ketchup, a smoky chipotle ketchup, a barbecue type ketchup, maple syrup ketchup, a mayo-based ketchup, and a spicy chili ketchup. So of course when the server asked if wanted anything to start, I said, "We were really looking forward to a Threesome." Hilarity ensued. After Ketchup, our group, which at that point had included the original threesome plus five other people, we paid the bill, making sure the birthday girl did not have to pay for her birthday dinner and drinks, and we headed to the dueling piano bar Bobby McKeys, which was a lot of fun, all though it was mainly boogie woogie, they did some cool older songs, covering Elton John, John Cougar Mellencamp (or did he drop the Cougar part recently?? I dunno!), to Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" which was pretty awesome. I'm getting off track. I was going to explain the cake thing.
I really dislike carrot cake. I like carrots, and I like cake. I just do not like the two together. I will eat it, but then again I will eat almost anything, but I'd prefer a different kind of cake if I had the choice. My sister sent me a text asking what kind of cake I wanted for my family birthday celebration. I said anything but carrot cake, carrot cake can go to hell. I had forgotten that my neighbor, who was really like a second mother to me, had given me a piece of carrot cake along with a Mexican-style chicken and rice dish a few weeks ago and I had eaten both. So she kept giving me shit about it tonight, and I said yes, I ate the carrot cake you gave me (because I did), but I kept backpedaling and having to qualify that I do not hate carrot cake (I'd just like to eat something else if I can choose, and it's really not so bad!). For some reason, my sister and I also brought up that we don't like coconut on cakes. For me, it's a texture thing, not a flavor thing. I like coconut milk and coconut flavor, I just don't like the coconut flakes/fleshy pulpy bits on stuff. Yeeeechhhh. Oddly enough, our parents both loved coconut.
I guess my message is I turned 30. Go me! I don't feel different, I don't look different, I've always been good about putting on sunblock so my skin looks a-ok, and lastly, you're never too old to be what you've always wanted to be, unless of course you've always wanted to be a child actor. At 30, it's too late.
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