A lot of people find the idea of turning 30 scary, however, as I reflect back over the last decade, I am ready to let my 20s go! It hasn’t been a kind time and I have a lot of hopes and dreams for my 30th and the next decade! Find out why I am ready to enter a brand new era here!

Good Morning Lovelies, 

People often say that your 20s are the best years of your life. I can’t say that I agree. It is a tough decade to handle. Many of life’s pressures are placed on us during it. We are expected to graduate, find the perfect job, meet our lifelong partners, buy our dream homes, get married, have babies and live behind that white picket fence. However, it doesn’t always work out that way! 

When I turned 20, I was in the midst of university stress. At 21, I graduated and quickly threw myself into work, forgetting my dreams of living in Dublin, after a dream holiday there. I continued to work, taking only a few breaks to pop to Disneyland Paris, until I was made redundant at 24 for my dream role. It was also at this time that I found my dad after he had suffered from two strokes, witnessed my mum fall into a deep depression, nursing her as much as I could, whilst also helping her care for my ill grandad and guiding my brother through a break up. 

This emotional toll led to my eating disorder and exercise addiction to get worse, leading to me being forced into a psychiatric hospital to get help, with the threat of being sectioned on my shoulders. Then the pandemic hit and whilst I was grateful to be allowed home, it was the most amazing time. Only a few months into turning 25, my dad fell ill and sadly passed away. Over the next few years, we had to try and navigate a way to live again without him. 

When I turned 29, I hoped for a better time, but I should have known the last year of my twenties was not going to be easy. On the day, a lot of people forgot it was my birthday. My health then took a hit and I was diagnosed with an unknown lung infection, chronic sinusitis and a number of other health conditions that I am still being investigated for. There so, it is safe to say that no one can plan how their 20s may be and they definitely are not meant to be spent following rules set by society. 

As I approach my thirties, I hope to spend them in a lot more happier means. Whilst my health is still all over the place, I am a lot more positive in certain ways. I am ready to take on more adventures with my mum. I’m ready to try out new ideas and build on dream projects. I am ready to just say goodbye to my twenties. The thirties are the new twenties to me and you are only as old as you feel, which in my case is about 12. 

Sitting in my hotel room in Dublin right now, I am with my favourite person in my most favourite place in the world and to me that’s the best way I could start this new decade! I’m ready to truly embrace the dirty thirties! Who else is with me? 

Joey X