I am 31 years young. What a stupid phrase. Someone in a call centre for car insurance recently referred to me as "31 years young". I didn't go with my car insurance with them. Partly because of that and partly because they suddenly whacked the price up by A LOT when I said I wanted to pay monthly. I know it normally goes up, but not by that amount. So, I am 31 years OLD. And it's great. I love being 31. I am the happiest I have ever been. Sure, I have to do things like ring car insurance call centres, but only because I have a nice shiny black car that zooms along the highways and byways. I couldn't have done that as a child. I have a house, or I will do in a couple of weeks when this sale goes through. It's mine. Yeah, so the act of buying a house isn't great, lots to organise, but it means you own a house at the end. I am also in love with someone I plan to spend the rest of my life with. As a younger man I had no luck with the ladies. Now I have luck, mostly, with one lady and we are getting married. Again, lots to organise, but it means I have a best friend for life and that's pretty damn cool. All these things cost me money. So I have a job. I work in IT support for a rather successful engineering consultancy firm. That sounds very grown up doesn't it? I have to go to a building for at least 40 hours every week and do things for other people, but in return they give me rather a decent amount of money. And I quite like working in IT for the most part. So because of all the money they give me, it means I can afford to do the things mentioned above. I can also do other things with my money. I can drink beer in pubs. This is one of my most favourite things about being grown up. Being able to shave or more importantly not shave is pretty cool too.
So basically, growing up is complicated. You have lots to organise and arrange and pay for and you have to work to pay for those things. But you get to own and do cool shit like drive and drink and touch boobies and grow a beard and live in a house that you may not be the boss of, but you have equal say in. I love being a grown up. Mainly I love it because you learn that part of growing up is that you don't have to grow up at all. Sure I have to do all those things I listed above, but ask me for a list of things that I would like to buy myself and it would probably be very similar to someone half my age or less. Here goes:
- An Xbox 360 with kinect
- An iPad
- An iPhone 4
- A big kick ass 50" TV
- Lots of Lego
That list probably, in essence, (sure the TVs have got bigger and thinner and the consoles more sophisticated) hasn't changed much as long as I can remember. The problem with growing up is you finally get all the money to buy those things (I have the most money that I have ever had in my life by a long way) but you have to spend it on maintaining the bigger things I have already listed. Cars, insurance, petrol, mortgages, houses, weddings, bills, etc. So, as when you were a child, there are all these shiny gadgets and plastic building blocks you want and then there is a bloke with facial hair telling you that, although there is money coming in, there isn't any money to buy them because it needs to be spent on the cost of living. Only difference is now that bloke isn't your dad, it is yourself.
But, as when you were a child, every now and again some money does make it through and you get to buy yourself something nice and shiny (bike, surround sound home cinema system, computer) and on that day you feel like a child again and it is glorious. Only difference is you appreciate it even more now as you understand where the money came from.
