There must have been more to the tragic story of 29-year-old Lisa Gow, who killed herself because she didn’t want to turn 30 without a husband and children. However, the pressures on young women to establish a career, buy a property, get married and pop out some sprogs can’t be denied. (Hot Danish was fond of jumping on this bandwagon.)
Of course, our attitude to these things becomes more relaxed with age. Our careers adapt to our fast-paced world; property ownership brings its own set of problems; some of our most memorable moments happen during singledom; and becoming a parent is probably not the best step if you’re already feeling anxious.
A useful exercise for combating the dread of a misspent youth is writing down your most memorable moments from the last five years. It doesn’t only encourage you to put things into perspective (wow, five years is a long time) and make you realise, actually, you’ve achieved quite a bit, but it also helps focus your priorities. It also gets rid of those rose-tinted spectacles (there’s a reason you didn’t marry that great-on-paper guy; or in my case, three).
So what did my memorable moments tell me? Solid friendships and even passing acquaintances, banter, top nosh and booze, spending time in beautiful places and challenging oneself are the important things in life.
Admittedly, those bucket list items (such as lunch at the Fat Duck; breaking my personal speed record on the autobahn; and staying at Hotel Splendido) are mostly pricy things. As Britney said, ‘You’d better work b**ch.’
