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livI will post a review of the year at some point but it might be a bit into January. I'm also about to turn 40, so it seems a good time to look back over my 30s. It's quite nice that all of it is documented on DW (apart from the first few months of 2009 when I was still on LJ), but I'm not going to get too much sucked into re-reading old posts.
When I turned 30, I had been datingjack for just under a year, long-distance as I was finishing a post-doc in Sweden. I would have found it hard to believe that by 40 I would be married to jack. I'd have probably been even more surprised to learn that, as a married couple, we would be in a long-term relationship with another couple. I think I at least vaguely knew ghoti_mhic_uait at the start of my 30s, but not well enough to be sure it wasn't a few years later I met her and cjwatson.
I probably wouldn't have guessed either that a few months into my 30s I'd be offered my dream job, a tenured academic post at Keele Medical School. That job was most of the decade. I learned a huge amount from it, not just about the actual subject of medicine. I attempted and ultimately failed to supervise two PhDs, and kept my tiny, nominally Orthodox community going. And spent nearly all my weekends commuting to Cambridge to seejack and the rest of our social circle. In my 20s I wouldn't have expected to have a permanent job by aged 30, nor to come back to England for it. But it was a good time and place to be 30-something, for the first time in my life earning enough that I wasn't counting pennies.
I was a little over 30 when I got a smartphone, which meant that I not only lived on the internet, I could take the internet with me wherever I went. It's been the decade of Dreamwidth, helping with the initial launch of the site in 2009 and posting at least fairly regularly ever since. Lots of people have drifted away, but lots haven't, and I still have just as rich a circle of interesting online acquaintances as I did in my 20s on LJ.
Politically, every election has surprised me. I didn't expect a minority Con government in 2010, I didn't expect a Lib-Con coalition either. I didn't expect a swing towards the Conservatives in 2015, and I certainly didn't see the Brexit referendum coming. I had no idea that far-right populism was going to become the level of threat it has across so many countries I pay attention to. I could never have imagined having to wonder where is the least unsafe country to spend my 40s. On a more positive note, I continue to be absolutely astonished at how mainstream LGB acceptance is, how many people of the generation behind mine have such a huge range of genders and sexualities to choose from. (I hope the extinction burst of anti-trans hatred will evaporate soon so I can include the whole acronym.)
And personally, the balance of my life has moved more towards romantic relationships than I would ever have expected, but I still take great joy in my wonderful friends. Thank you all for being in my life and for reconnecting when I drop the ball on staying in touch. On the whole, I feel faithful to my 30-year-old self (even though I did end up leaving the dream job after 8 years). I read less novels than I used to, and I'm more of a homebody, less an adventurer. But generally I like who I've grown into and I'm looking forward to my 40s.
It's a real luxury to have Christmas Eve completely free like this. My work and Jack's both didn't feel it was worth opening for half a day between the weekend and the holiday, so we are at home with no particular responsibilities.
When I turned 30, I had been dating
jack for just under a year, long-distance as I was finishing a post-doc in Sweden. I would have found it hard to believe that by 40 I would be married to jack. I'd have probably been even more surprised to learn that, as a married couple, we would be in a long-term relationship with another couple. I think I at least vaguely knew ghoti_mhic_uait at the start of my 30s, but not well enough to be sure it wasn't a few years later I met her and cjwatson. I probably wouldn't have guessed either that a few months into my 30s I'd be offered my dream job, a tenured academic post at Keele Medical School. That job was most of the decade. I learned a huge amount from it, not just about the actual subject of medicine. I attempted and ultimately failed to supervise two PhDs, and kept my tiny, nominally Orthodox community going. And spent nearly all my weekends commuting to Cambridge to see
jack and the rest of our social circle. In my 20s I wouldn't have expected to have a permanent job by aged 30, nor to come back to England for it. But it was a good time and place to be 30-something, for the first time in my life earning enough that I wasn't counting pennies. I was a little over 30 when I got a smartphone, which meant that I not only lived on the internet, I could take the internet with me wherever I went. It's been the decade of Dreamwidth, helping with the initial launch of the site in 2009 and posting at least fairly regularly ever since. Lots of people have drifted away, but lots haven't, and I still have just as rich a circle of interesting online acquaintances as I did in my 20s on LJ.
Politically, every election has surprised me. I didn't expect a minority Con government in 2010, I didn't expect a Lib-Con coalition either. I didn't expect a swing towards the Conservatives in 2015, and I certainly didn't see the Brexit referendum coming. I had no idea that far-right populism was going to become the level of threat it has across so many countries I pay attention to. I could never have imagined having to wonder where is the least unsafe country to spend my 40s. On a more positive note, I continue to be absolutely astonished at how mainstream LGB acceptance is, how many people of the generation behind mine have such a huge range of genders and sexualities to choose from. (I hope the extinction burst of anti-trans hatred will evaporate soon so I can include the whole acronym.)
And personally, the balance of my life has moved more towards romantic relationships than I would ever have expected, but I still take great joy in my wonderful friends. Thank you all for being in my life and for reconnecting when I drop the ball on staying in touch. On the whole, I feel faithful to my 30-year-old self (even though I did end up leaving the dream job after 8 years). I read less novels than I used to, and I'm more of a homebody, less an adventurer. But generally I like who I've grown into and I'm looking forward to my 40s.
It's a real luxury to have Christmas Eve completely free like this. My work and Jack's both didn't feel it was worth opening for half a day between the weekend and the holiday, so we are at home with no particular responsibilities.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-12-27 03:47 pm (UTC)My 30s involved a lot of change, but were very good on the whole. I hope my and your 40s are great.
Swedes and other roots to happiness...
Date: 2018-12-31 09:05 am (UTC)Happiness is always unexpected, and there's always more of it in unexpected places, for those who arewilling to look.
Politics has crossed over some kind of event horizon: it is no longer rational, nor predictable
- or rather, it is rational from a standpoint among people who do not normally function well in society, and I fear that I understand them far too well - and the only workable approach is to make contingency plans for the bad-to-worst outcomes.
Politics has become dangerous again, in ways that I thought had been defeated with the demise of the far right thirty years ago.
A dark sense of humour helps, if you use it wisely: and I *will* be planting out the turnip seeds in this year's 'The Practical Christmas Present',, just in case the 'Eating turnips in the dark' scenario comes true. They probably won't become tge unit of currency, but they will confer a definite advantage in a future that features throwing rotten vegetables at people.