3.0.

So yesterday I welcomed a friend to the big 3.0. and everyone wanted to know how he felt. As if turning 30 was the onset of some disease or the end of something like a marathon. I guess it does marks the end of you're 20s. Very much the way 20 marks the end of your teens. But yet I don't remember people asking me how turning 20 felt.

Let's see, the big ones were 16 (driving), 18 (voting), and 21 (drinking). Is it the accomulating of rights what makes an age noteworthy? If so what right is to be gained at the age of 30?

The right to freak out comes to mind. Freaking out when turning 30 is allowed and perhaps even encouraged (I myself recieved a red card with the numbers three and zero and the words "remain calm" printed in a re-assuring white).

Why do people freak out when they turn 30? Maybe because you know you're suppose to and if people are good at anything, it's inventing reasons for freaking out.

Truth is, at any given moment of our lives we could have more, do better, or lead an idealized life we think other people have.

For my friend's birthday I got him a collection of short stories about birthdays selected by the famed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. I found the book while rummaging through an English bookstore at Village Saint-Paul. I happened to be eavesdropping when the clerk was making a recommendation of books by Murakami to an Amercian women who wanted the store to send books to her secret friend.

Secret friend, I thought to myself. What makes him/her a secret? Was it a secret lover? Someone famous? And if it was truly a secret why was she making a point of saying "secret" when just saying friend would have sufficiently hidden their identity?

It occurred to me then that perhaps it was her intention for someone to inquire about this interesting, secretive life that she leads.

I bought the book and left.