I turned thirty last Sunday.
If you’re still in your twenties (I remember those halcyon days!) you may wonder if thirty really feels any different. Ah, the naivete of youth. Of course it’s different as a tricenarian. Among other things:
- Overwhelming urge to purchase monocle and velocipede, vote for Grover Cleveland
- Formally renamed to “Brion the Grey”
- Automatically given six-month trial subscription to AARP Jr.
- Taken aside and taught elaborate five-part secret handshake
- Now 8% more racist
- Bulk discount on birthday candles
- Legally permitted to be U.S. senator under article I, section 3 of the Constitution
- Navel-length salt-and-pepper beard
- Now believe that the world is world is worse off currently (when I am reading the news) than how I remember it when I was a kid (when I was not reading the news and mostly playing with Legos)
- One year left of being trusted by the “don’t trust anyone over thirty” crowd, depending on precise definition of “over thirty”
- Distrustful of all new technology since 2010 (looking at you, Vine)
- New outlook on the youth:
Just kidding. I thought the children were wrong when I was a child, too.
Brian D. Buckley 
When I turned 30, somewhat before you were born, my then-f-i-l called up, thinking we could share some manly commiseration, since he had recently turned fifty.
He was quite disgruntled when he found out that I really didn’t care.
Oh, and the first rule about the secret handshake is that you don’t talk about the secret handshake.
Which is now 8% less secret.
Sigh. Kids today.
We’re thinking about renaming it the Open Source Handshake so it’ll seem less intriguing.
It would be embarrassing to describe exactly how much I laughed at this, so I’ll just say that I found it quite amusing indeed.
In the death throes of my 20’s at 29. Have slowly been seeing the transformation as I still listen to music from 2005 regularly. Not ready!
Do not go gentle into that good…thirty!