Dating Over Thirty

     

Growing up the number 27 always resonated with me and was always been my lucky number;  maybe because I was due to turn 27 on the 27^th and as a result all my life I couldn’t wait to turn 27. I was convinced I would have my life together by then. I would have the house, the dream career and be happily married and be getting ready to start popping babies out. However as we all know life has a habit of not panning out the way we planned and at the age of 31, I can tell you pretty much none of those things happened. I am still very much single without the hint or a glimmer of hope on the husband front.

I don’t know about you, but for me the pressure is on to try and find the “One”, after all I’m constantly reminded that I’m not getting any younger. Why, because I want to have options like having kids. Ideally following the blueprint and doing the whole get married, buy a house thing first and then see what happens after.  As a woman I feel like the countdown is on. I can’t help but feel that if I was a guy, I would be more inclined to take things in my stride, after all men can father babies up until they die. But the reality is, as a woman if I were to get pregnant over the age of 35, I would be classed as a geriatric mother. “Geriatric”, now just take a moment to focus on that word with me. Have you focused? Good, because after I focus on it, I want to scream, at the unfairness of it all! Geriatric at 35, it just seems so insane, considering that for me that is less than 4 years away. I don’t think I ever really understood the saying before, “my biological clock is ticking”, I remember hearing it in movies and reading about it in magazines, thinking what clock? But truth be told, lately I can’t stop hearing it echo in my brain as I try to not let the panic take hold. So just to sum it up, I have less than 4 years whilst I’m still in the prime of my fertility to sort it out. Or risk the quality of a diminishing egg reserve, coupled with higher health risks for future baby and me. Warning, warning ….full panic mode engaged!

It definitely doesn’t help matters, when I can almost guarantee if I speak to an aunt or an uncle, someone is going to ask me when I am going to get married and settle down. Can you relate or is it just me and my family? All I want to do is yell, “trust me if it was that easy we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, because that rock would already be on my finger, and it's certainly not from a lack of trying; and yes I know exactly how old I am and what that means, thank you very much!”

Dating in your thirties is like trying to navigate your way across a choppy ocean, on a tiny little paddle boat, with no compass or life jacket and you are at the mercy of Mother Nature. God knows whether you are going to make it across or what you'll come up against along the way. But either way, you’re in for the ride, and you better hope you can paddle.

* The photo was taken on my 27th birthday on a beach in Portugal.