Part 2/2 Turning 25 vs Turning 30
Hello friend,
This is part 2 of this series of newsletters I wrote before I left for a 10-day meditation retreat. Read part 1 here
Before we begin this part, I just want to thank you for reading and encouraging me in this journey of self-expression.
It has been almost 8 months since this newsletter started.
I haven’t missed a single edition so far and I couldn’t have done without your support. 🙂
So, coming back to this edition, today I turn 30 years old.
Hopefully, I am still at the retreat celebrating this day in silence while you read this! (Fingers crossed!)
In part 1, I shared a few things about Vipassana when I experienced it 8 years ago.
3 years after that experience, I turned 25 years old and this is what I had written at that time on Medium:
Throwback: 25 Lessons on Turning 25
It feels weird reading the above piece I wrote on my 25th birthday.
When I look back at my 25-year-old self, I feel a twinge of cringe and jealousy.
He seems like a sorted, positive, (naive?) guy jotting down 25 life lessons on turning 25!. I mean I had barely lived an adult life till then. 😀
There is a sense of giddy optimism and hope when I read my 25-year-old self:
“I feel more alive than I have ever felt before….. I don’t know where this road will take me 5 years from now. But I do hope to be at peace like I’m right now, when I write a similar note on this day in 2022, talking about lessons at 30 with few more dreams fulfilled.”
Sorry, my 25-year-old self!
I am hardly at peace.
I never found the courage to pursue what I thought was my biggest dream.
My physical and mental health is in the pits.
Of course, there was a pandemic that took away almost 2 years of these 5 years.
But that is hardly an excuse.
But I’d be lying if I say I don’t miss that positivity and naivety sometimes.
In fact, if I really think about it, even though I did not do many things, I still did a few things that were not that bad.
Things I am Grateful for In the Last 5 Years while I turn 30
- Fulfilled my dream of studying liberal arts at Young India Fellowship.
- Managed to secure a decent job in the city of my dreams, not just once, but twice
- Lived independently and all alone in a strange city for the first time for 2 whole years, including 5 months during lockdown
- Had a mental health crisis that brought me closer to my inner shadow while identifying and coming to terms with my compulsive tendencies
- Learned and grew immensely at work in the past 2 years becoming a better marketer and hopefully a better writer
- Went through an almost life-changing writing course, The Write of Passage which led to the birth of this newsletter and gave home to my expression
- Formed some deep, life-long connections at the workplace in the last year of my 20s
So yes, I might be in worse physical and mental health than in my mid-20s.
I might not have the clarity I had hoped I’d have in my 30s.
I might not have got the courage to go after my biggest dream, yet.
But, I still feel I have lived listening to my heart. At least most of the time.
And I am grateful for that.
Maybe that is what matters in the end.
I do hope that in the next 5 years, I also set and fulfill more explicit goals I have, especially in the area of health and fitness.
Here is to welcoming 30s!
Feel free to share some tips if you are in your 30s to navigate this seemingly scary decade! 😀
Until next time
Love
Vishal