Friends, it's Rosie here.
Welcome back to Radio Headspace.
When I was younger, I had a very clear vision of what I wanted
my life to look like by the time I turned 30. I was going to be married.
I was going to have children.
There would probably be a small but charming house, maybe with a lemon tree in the yard.
It wasn't even something I consciously obsessed over.
It was just the blueprint I'd absorbed from culture, from movies.
From the quiet assumptions that float around us when we're in our 20s,
30 felt like a milestone, a marker, a checkpoint where adulthood would officially begin.
And then 30 came and went.
Now I'm 42. I don't have children.
Tori and I are not married.
And the funny thing is, at some point, that stopped feeling like a failure and started feeling like a choice.
I kind of like having a boyfriend.
I like the lightness of it.
I like that we choose each other every year without a legal document forcing us to.
But getting here wasn't linear.
There were moments in my 30s when I felt that quiet ache.
Weddings I attended.