Five things you SHOULDN'T do before you turn 30!

Teenage and Twenties – these are the coveted years in anybody’s life – time to live carefree, time to rebel!! And during the revelry, we sometimes end up with burden that we carry in our thirties which we are not very proud of or are happy about. I can actually imagine some of these things right now.

So, the next time a person in his / her thirties tells you that “I wouldn’t like to go back to my teens”, don’t dismiss him / her as a case of “sour grapes”. He / she just might be one of those persons who actually believe that the teens and the twenties was not the best time of their lives and that they may have actually done some stupid things which if asked to do in the present, they would certainly do differently.

And if you may ask what some of those things may be, then I am probably in one of those moods today to list some of them down:

1. That embarrassing email address you made long ago: What was it really? therealhulk@whatever.com,thecharmingprincess@whatever.com, therealstupidcupid@whatever.com or was it missloveable@whatever.com. To be honest, many of us had made really stupid email addresses when we were teenagers. Most of them may just be a result of not being able to manage our real full name as email addresses and may often be a combination of certain clichéd teenage words and slangs with our full or nick names. Nevertheless, they can be really embarrassing and most people in their thirties would not normally be continuing to use the same.

2. The permanent tattoo you so try to cover up now: Okay, now what was your first tattoo? Che Guevara’s face? “Peace” written in Chinese script? “Love” with the infinity symbol? No matter what it was, you probably wouldn’t get the same tattoo now when you are past your twenties. The fact that they are permanent doesn’t really help. So you try your best to cover it up using clothes and make-up. So, the next time your kid brother / sister or your daughter / son asks you if it’s okay to get a tattoo, you should advise them to get one when they reach their thirties and know where their ideologies lie.

3. The school / college slam book entries at the time of farewell: Your school / college slam books are really lying in the farthest corner of your store room. Isn’t it? And you secretly hope that all your friend’s slam books are being treated similarly where you have filled pages and pages of stupid useless stuff most of which seems really embarrassing now if you read it again. So, it’s best that those slam books never really resurface to remind you what a romantic fool you were.

4. The dozens of piercings that leave a mark: When I was a teenager, piercings were really trendy. Although our school authorities really tried to keep a check on those (like no piercings near the eyebrows, etc. were allowed), people still managed to get away with quite a few undetected ones (e.g. navel piercings?). Over years, having tackled with unintentional injuries to the body caused by entangled clothes and having applied ointments to bruises and swellings, some people I know have actually left the piercings on their own to reseal while others continue to deal with the same with subdued fervour.

5. Those mushy collections of recorded videos and books: Not much unlike the slam books stashed away, there may be quite a few collections of mushy books and videos that you may not be using any more and more so do not feel much proud of. Having studied in an all-girls school, I have seen quite a few Mills & Boons exchange hands and have known boys maintaining the same for magazines (read Playboy and sometimes even Filmfare) and videos. Same goes for the posters put up on your walls which have since been taken off or disposed permanently. While at that time you would have doled out a major chunk of your pocket money or your parent’s hard-earned cash on those and they would have been considered your prized collections, some may even have been trashed by now while others may be lying in a corner having not seen sunlight for years.

Well, to be fair, I should say that all these have also served a purpose in your life which probably was right for that age, however, it’s relative permanence in our lives and the understanding now of how far and better we have evolved since then does lead us to some embarrassment. Today, if you were to make an email address, get a tattoo or start a book collection, I am sure your choices would be much different.