Here's what happened to me after age 35:

*got married 9 years later for the first time, to a great guy with a big warm heart and a beautiful smile

*had a baby boy, now 4, who brings me such joy

*found a new career that uses the skills from my old one, but in a much richer and more meaningful way

*made some really treasured new friends who have enriched my life and made me feel very loved and needed

There have been challenges too, some really big ones. But it's like in the past 10 years my heart has gotten bigger, I've started to acquire some wisdom (I hope) and I've come to realize what's really important.

Did you ever see that great movie with Humphrey Bogart, "The African Queen". Extremely brief synopsis: He's on a boat with Katharine Hepburn, going down a river, many difficulties and tribulations, and they've run aground, they're exhausted and demoralized and ready to give up and die. And then the camera, honed in tight on their misery, slowly pulls back and you see that just around the bend from where they're stuck, there's clear water, and if they could ONLY JUST SEE around the bend, they'd know that they'll be OK. Clear water ahead.

jeoc I'm going to wish you a very Happy Birthday anyway and tell you that I sincerely believe that the very best is yet to come for you and there are great things waiting for you. Clear water ahead.

(((((((jeoc)))))))

Happy birthday! I'm not yet thirty-five, so all I can tell you is that everyone is faking it and we could all use a little more love and understanding.

Happy Birthday...and, there are a world of good things that happen at this point.


With maturity, you appreciate things more, you think more clearly, you make better decisions...

After 35 I learned how to fly fish, I bought my first Harley (hell, that was after 55!), I was in my first movie, I watched my kids become wonderful individuals, I finally found the job I would keep for the next 30 years.

Actually, things get better!

I got fat. Then I lost a lot of the weight (too much, in fact). Then I gained most of it back. Now I'm riding a bicycle again and eating vegetarian and things are looking up.

HAPPY BIRFDAY JEOC

I added you to the Birthday Wiki!

I am much happier than when I was under 35. I had a kid when I was around 38 and how she's out of the house on living a very interesting life as a young woman in a great urban area.

I sort of changed careers around 35 and now I am on the verge of a retirement that will be more lucrative than my present income.

I am 60 and my BMI is barely over 25. My sex life is still going, and fine. I get up at 5am three mornings per week to play doubles volleyball.

I do not act my age at all. . .you don't have to either, as long as you keep your body reasonably in shape.

But I would caution for you to pay attention to your teeth. I have and it has really been a good thing.

Happy birthday, jeoc! I have done nothing since 35.

Happy birthday, jeoc! I am 35.5 (... exactly, as of yesterday) so with my whole half year of experience over you, I will say that hey, it's pretty good. The older I get the more comfortable I am in my skin.

The older I get the more comfortable I am in my skin.
I agree with this. Of course, it may be because I have so much more of it these days ...

I submit that the mid 30s are pretty tough (for our particular cultural sub-group) and that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the late 30s, early 40s.

Happy birthday!

I became a homeowner for the first time a month before I turned 35. My first poem was published the next year.

Happy Birthday!

Not 35, but I was 34 when I got married. I got my first dog at 39. I bought my first house just short of 40. I'm 44 now and in spite of physical and mental health issues, I'm much more comfortable with myself than I've ever been.

Happy Birthday, jeoc.

Happy birthday, man. Wasn't that a long time since 20?

Happy birthday!

Happy!

Not there yet, but Mr. G will be in a week.

Thirty five? Heck, I didn't even graduate from college until I was 33, almost all of my professional career has been after 35.

Since I was thirty five I:

- Met the love of my life.
- Got married for the second time (see above)
- Bought two houses
- Raised my son from my first marriage and sent him to college
- Went to grad school
- Went to the west coast for the first time
- Spent hundreds of hours campaigning for a dark horse congressional candidate who won
- Did the same for a funny named presidential candidate who won too
- Made many friends
- Went to many movies, plays, rocks concerts, symphonies, ballets, festivals, museums, etc.
- Played Ultimate Frisbee for four seasons
- Ran in 5Ks, 10Ks and a 1/2 marathon
- etc.

Thirty five is nothing, I don't even feel like I knew how to live at that point. It's only been in the last ten years that I've really been happy and feel like a whole person.

Happy birthday, joec, and many happy returns of the day!

I'm happier now than I ever was as a younger woman. I could list off milestones, and there are plenty. If I had to pick one, though, it's academic: returning to school has been a huge factor in my pleasure and mastery of my life, in my discovery of my authentic voice.

Meeting The Fella around age 35 (and marrying him around age 40) has vastly improved my daily life: pleasures are doubled and pains halved because we share them.

And more than any of that, in recent years, I've become both more and less patient: kinder and more understanding, but also more comfortable establishing boundaries and sticking to them. It sounds so small, but it's an enormous improvement in my emotional health and my family life.

Happy birthday, and here's hoping that you find this age as exciting and comfortable as I have (and as so many here testify to)!

Recently hit 30 (and 3 months) so I'll stick to birthday wishes. Also, I wanna piece of birthday cake (corner piece so I get extra frosting :) )

Well, I'll be 34 this year, so I'm not far behind, but for what it's worth my life is fucking awesome to the power of ten, so I fully expect you to drink your share from the overflowing cup of awesome that we're all passing around. Happy Birthday and then some.

Happy birthday! Lots of great things are possible for sure. I turned 40 last year, and have had the best year of my life, despite it starting out rough. I've made a bunch of new friends recently, seen some of the best live shows of my life, decided to stop being afraid of living, and some other more saucy details that I should likely keep to myself.

Seriously, hands down, the best year of my life.

Thirty five is nothing, I don't even feel like I knew how to live at that point. It's only been in the last ten years that I've really been happy and feel like a whole person.
Seriously, this. I turn 50 this year and feel younger and better all-round than I did at 30. It's all ahead of you!

Happy Birthday! After turning 35, I went on vacation with omg strangers from the internet and had a wonderful time. I've had new and exciting sexytime adventures. I've been in a student film, and some great and not so great stage plays. I switched jobs, but remained in the same industry. I wish I looked like what I looked like when I was 35-38 -ish - I think this is the time many women are at their most beautiful.

Have fun, live it up, you are still young and there are good and bad things around every corner.

Give me a j-e-o-c! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday jeoc. I'll nth what the others are saying. Here's what I've learned in the 7 years since I turned 35:

In my case, 35 was pretty close to the low point, although I didn't see it as such then. Looking back, I've come so far in both personal development and in many outward ways. I've found the love of my life, we own our own place, we both have stable jobs with good incomes, yadda yadda. BUT ALL THAT STUFF THERE?? No, that's not a good measure of success. You know why? Because you can have all of those things, and still be miserable; I know this, because I've seen it many times, and kinda been there myself. You can also have zero of those things and still be happy, and I have been there too.

I think the biggest thing I've learned for my own happiness and sanity is how to stop procrastinating and handwringing and beanplating and going omgomgomgSTRESS!!! and just, for the love of god, Get Shit Done. It's part of a whole perfectionism-hypercritical-neurotic thought pattern that I've had all my life as your garden variety ADHD/underachiever/slacker type. And I've finally managed to, well, not break the cycle (I still have those thoughts a lot) but I at least manage my day-to-day life and taskload in a functional way. Because I am NOT a special snowflake, I'm merely one of a gazillion people who basically have to trudge thru the same bullshit every day in order to get to the fun stuff on the other side.

The core concept I've learned is that if I set myself up for suckiness and failure by telling myself things are going to suck and fail, well hey, you know what? They absolutely will! And dicking around trying to overanalyze why there is suckiness and failure and getting all anxious about the magnitude of suck and failage, rather than, you know, just getting on with Getting Shit Done doesn't do a damn thing except increase the pile of suck and aggravation on my end. Plus I'm always astonished at how "meh, just getting shit done" in my book is "holy shit awesome job!" in everyone else's.

What a great thread. Wonderful Mecha bunnies reveal more of their wonderfulness!

Happy Bday, belatedly!

Post 35, in no particular order, I:
1) Met and married my most adored and beloved Bear
2) Post Bear, have been the happiest I have ever been
3) Was promoted
4) Got my dream job, which is even better than I dreamed it would be
5) Became financially secure
6) Ran a marathon
7) Became thin and fit
8) Have learned to play guitar
9) Became the owner of a house, then an even nicer house
10) Travelled to and around Africa and Central America, among other cool travel destinations.
11) Learned yoga
12) Became at peace with myself

Believe me, many wonderful things lie ahead for you, too. Wishing them all for you, for all your birthdays to come.

Thanks, bunnies. It has been so great to read about all the terrific things that have happened in your lives, and I do feel reassured about not having everything figured out yet. I had a lovely red velvet cake from the Fresh Market and I am sending a virtual piece to each of you!

Wow, lonefrontranger, I wish there was favorites on Mecha. Haha.