Why your 30's are not your 20's

On the drive to work this morning the local radio show that I have been listening to since my middle school days was talking about things that you are too old to be doing. While most days I don't feel like I'm 32, some things bring me crashing back to the reality that my carefree 20's are long gone. People might say that 30 is the new 20, but I think that is just what us thirty-somethings tell ourselves to ease the pain of getting older. Don't get me wrong, so far I have really enjoyed and embraced my new decade of life, but I'm not naive enough to think I can just cruise along like I did when I was 25. Sorry to break to you twenty somethings, so enjoy the hell out of those years.

1. You can't drink like your 22 old self.

To be really honest I can't drink like my 25 year old self. Somewhere that version of Denise is shaking her head when she watches me try to drink like the old days. She laughs at her future self. Back in my early 20's I went out every weekend and drank like your typical college student. Football games meant all day drinking and tailgating. Nowadays if I attempt to do all day drinking I find that I need a nap halfway through it and will feel hungover the next day. A popular thing in Orlando is to go to Epcot to go drink around the world which involves going to all the countries and having a drink. T's 30th birthday is this month and when I jokingly suggested it to him as an idea he quickly said we were too old for it. Sadly I think he is right. Oh to have my younger liver back.

                                                              Circa 2000's

2. Eating whatever you want with no consequences.

I'm very lucky to be blessed with a fast metabolism and be on the slender side. Trust me I know that. But even for me I have noticed a slowing down of the metabolism and acquiring what I call a baby muffin top. My mom had warned me that she started to gain weight in her 30's so I should have seen this coming. I especially noticed this over the holidays when I ate with reckless abandon.

3. Midnight movie showings are no longer worth the lack of sleep.

There was once in a time in my past when I loved going to see midnight showings. Harry Potter, Batman, Hunger Games, I was there. For me I gladly sacrificed my eight hours of sleep for the privilege of being one of the first to see the movie. Feeling tired and sleepy at work the next day was no problem for me. The last midnight movie I went to (which being married to a comic book fanatic was probably a comic book film) I was completely dragging the next day at work and needing a nap by lunch time. I like getting my full night of sleep if I have work the next day.

4. You sound stupid using the current slang.

I work at an educational non-profit that mainly works with teenagers, so I get to stay on top of the new lingo. Yes, I realize that using the word just made me sound ancient, but oh well. So if you are over 30 and going around saying cray cray, then sorry but you sound ridiculous. Instead embrace your age and stop trying to be young and hip. The beauty of being in my 30's is that I no longer really care about trying to be cool. I'm good with being nerdy little old me.

So what differences do you see in your 30's?