I'm Actually 30 Years Old
Categories: Thought
After tonight, I’ll actually be 30 years old. I’ve shamelessly felt like I was only 24, and before that, even more shamelessly thought I was 18. I can’t believe how fast time flies. Age feels like a wheel rolling down a mountain, gaining speed as time stretches on. Although my experiences are becoming richer, the perceived length of a year is significantly shorter than when I was a child, and I still feel some regret and melancholy.
I’ve noticed that many people around me gradually take on the characteristics appropriate for their age as time changes, as if they automatically upgrade when it’s time for a transition. For example, a student becomes an adult when they enter society, and a young person immediately becomes a mature father after having children. I feel that I have always been pushed by external forces in my role changes, and sometimes even felt awkward. My mindset still feels like it’s in the university stage, with little change, much like the feeling described by the author Hu An-yan in his article about being a delivery man. However, this naive mindset has not hindered me; on the contrary, it has made me live a more relaxed and curious life. Perhaps it was because I stumbled into loving coding in college, and in 2015, I luckily found a programming job I loved, which didn’t require me to consider too much about social etiquette. If I hadn’t studied computer science and went into another industry, I might have found it difficult to adapt to today’s society.
It was probably two years into my career when post-95s started joining, and I gradually realized that I was no longer the youngest in the team. Then I slowly discovered that post-97s were becoming the backbone of the team, and now post-00s are starting internships. I can’t help but sigh, youth is so good, young people are really great. Many aspects of excellent young people are worth learning from. I will consciously cultivate promising young people, give them more space and challenges, and dislike arranging things based on seniority. Instead, I believe that talent is irrelevant to age.
Returning to the present at 30, I hope to always maintain the “too young, too simple” attitude. I hope that at 40, 50, or even 60, my mindset will still be youthful, still trendy, and still writing code that I love. Don’t follow trends, don’t compare, don’t become greasy, and don’t become the kind of patronizing middle-aged person I hated when I was young. Just live a comfortable life, that’s enough.