50 Painfully-Accurate Memes That Anyone Above 30 Might Relate To, Shared By This Instagram Page
There’s just something about turning 30 that shakes us awake. Suddenly, we realize that this is the point we expected to have it all figured out. To leave our carefree youthful days behind and merrily cross over the bridge into adulthood. But many will agree there’s little joy in the mammoth 30th birthday. It often looms over our heads and reminds us that we simply haven’t done enough with our lives, making us question whether we’re running out of time.
But wait! The 30s aren’t that bad. This period is all about exploring life and getting closer to understanding who we really are. And with so many highs and lows during this decade, there’s plenty to laugh at as well. So let us introduce you to the 'Coping With Not Being 29' Instagram account, the perfect outlet for frustrated millennials to catch a break and chuckle at their misery. "Somewhere between adulting and setting the cat on fire," the creator writes, and by the looks of it, they’re not far off.
We have scoured their feed and gathered some hilarious memes and extremely relatable jokes that sum up what life in our 30s is all about. So continue scrolling and upvote the posts you thought were spot on! If you’re in the mood for even more painfully accurate content, take a look at our earlier posts about 'Millennial Heaven' and '30 And Tired.'
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We managed to get in touch with the creator of @30somethingaf, Sarah Sanders, who was kind enough to have a little chat with us. Sarah told Bored Panda that she started this account as a bit of a joke. "Memes and gifs were just getting started and I found myself looking at them thinking of other captions I would use that were funnier to me. I've always been interested in comedy and if I could go back in time, I would have pursued a career in writing for stand-up, sketch comedy or satirical sitcoms," she said.
The founder of the account described her community as her peers. "They are people learning to 'adult'. Some are family-focused, some are career-driven, some still have the Peter Pan syndrome, and others are just plain lost in the growth they are expected to experience." Sarah opened up about undergoing these phases herself, so managing the page has become like second nature to her. "If I can relate to it, chances are my audience will too."
The account has reached huge success. As of this writing, it has amassed over 429k lost souls looking for ways to catch a breath between all the responsibilities weighing on their shoulders. The feed consists of posts about various aspects of our everyday life, which makes the memes and jokes all the more relatable. "Everybody's journey is different as we hit our 30s," the creator noted. "Which is part of what makes it so fun to write about."
"We may have different lifestyles, incomes, backgrounds or areas of focus but we seem to share similar fears and goals. Success may be defined as a family with 4 kids to one person or a C-suite career to another but the common element is success," Sarah said, adding that while these are very diverse problems, everyone in their 30s has a shared feeling of failure. "I focus on the similarities, not the differences, and making those situations funny gives us all a little relief to know it's OK not to be perfect as we reach the time in our lives when society expects us to have [everything] together."
"Being in your 30s is the first time that people start to understand what they want, not just what others want of them," Sarah told us. "Whether it's material items, travel, children, investing or even more extreme partying, doors are opened that we didn't have in our 20s. We also have way more autonomy than we did in our 20s, which is good and bad. With more responsibility comes more freedom, but the opposite is also true."
"I think people in their 30s are a lot smarter than we get credit for. We graduated college during the Great Recession and are still succeeding. We are the oldest portion of the Millennial generation, which often gets a bad rap. While we do fall victim to the urge for instant gratification, we are also the leaders of our generation that have set an achievable and commendable standard," she stressed that while being in your 30s may seem like stepping one foot in the grave, it is also the time to stand up and create a better future for the next generations.
Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and creator of MentalDrive, told Bored Panda that while we think in terms of "mid-life crises," one period of change that often catches so many people off guard is exactly the transition from their 20s to 30s.
"The 30s decade is so challenging and is such an important developmental, psychological and social transition milestone," he explained. "It is that age where you feel young but come to the realization that you can't go back to being young and carefree without the responsibilities of adulthood."
"You are too old to be doing nothing," Klapow noted. Especially when you consider the pressure from society who wants to know where you are going — whether professionally or personally — and indicate that you need to become a responsible adult, he added. "But for so many, the feeling is one of youth being torn away. Adulthood is signaling you everywhere and you are forced to make a decision to either transition or to continue to age while trying to live the life of someone who hasn't reached adulthood. The result is frustration, rebellion, getting 'stuck', and/or impulsive decision making."
What makes most millennials anxious is that this transition means they can no longer hide behind a veil of still being young. "We are clearly not 'old', but we are at the point of no return back to youth," Klapow explained the paradox of life in your 30s. "The challenge is that, at 30, we very well may not have decided exactly what career, which relationship, what perspective on life to call our own. We may feel confused, contemplative and in many cases, frightened that things are now serious. We are expected to pull our weight in society but in our heart of hearts, we still feel like a 19 or 20-year-old trying to navigate life."
The clinical psychologist explained that one of the greatest challenges people face is the Imposter Syndrome. "We act as if we are adults. We talk like we are responsible and thoughtful and know where we are going, but we may feel deep down like we really don’t know what we are doing."
When you’re confused about your path in life, it’s easy to fill your mind with negative thoughts and convince yourself you’re failing at life. But Klapow wants you to remember that the 30s are a time of change. "It’s critical to remind yourself that the struggle you may feel, the fight inside to return back to younger, easier, simpler days, is the transition process. There is a natural desire to flip the switch and either be in adulthood or be back in childhood. Remind yourself that this is about the navigation of your life."
There’s nothing wrong with giving yourself permission to feel young, to act young, to engage in activities you may have in your 20s, he argued. "The difference is these are now reprieves and experiences vs daily living."
If you’re having trouble coping with these feelings, the clinical psychologist suggested talking to other 30-year-olds about where they are at. "It’s important to gain perspective on the feelings, and hearing others who are in the same place will give you a sense of community and validation."
I go with a pair (per day) and a spare. Of course, this also depends on the length of the trip and the destination. Because it might necessitate extra showers if there's a pool, or before we go out to a posher place for dinner. Or... You know what? I actually need a spreadsheet to work this one out. It's not as simple as I thought!
"Finally, remind yourself that there are societal expectations, but they are only expectations. You get to live your life and carve your own path. You will have certain responsibilities in adulthood, but your career, your relationships, your choices about living are still your own. Transitions by definition happen over time. Give yourself the permission to take that time to figure this all out," Klapow concluded. If you’re having any thoughts you want to share, the clinical psychologist is happy to field questions from you, dear readers, so don’t be shy and reach out!
honestly im surprised more teachers aren't drinking in class nowadays
I will never understand why people design clothes that require pure Antarctic glacier water, saffron and rare earth minerals to clean. /s Function over form for me.
Sooo relatable 😩. I have dreadlocks and it takes almost a day to get it completely dry after washing. I can't use dryers because they damage my locs, so I have to wash my hair around 4 - 5 in the morning. If I'm even 10 minutes late, I give up.
Someone did the maths. On average boomers needed to work for 306 hours at the then minimum wage to pay for four years of college. That mean roughly 75 hours per year of college or less than 2 hours a week over the whole year/about 3 hours a week during term time. Millenials need to work for 4459 hours to pay for 4 years of college at the current minimum wage. That's 557 days of 8 hour shift or more than TWO Years working 9-5, 5 days a week, without a single day iff.
I don't know where they got their figures. You might want to go over and check that. With out those it's hard to tell if this is even close. I posted some figures I found and the number of hours needed to pay off both eras was very close, maybe 500 hours different
Load More Replies...Lower-class boomer here. I paid for college by joining the Army. Thus, all tuition cost me were my blood, sweat, and tears. And years.
I owed 5k in 1973 which could buy the best Buick at that time. If you come out owing 40k that would be equivalent. Think something is messed up now by the interest rate and it is called by for profit colleges screwing over their students. But capitalism is the best, as long as they can pass along costs to someone else.
Consider this: in socialist Europe, college costs 3 nickels (compared to the US) and we don't even have to take an oath against capitalism.
I know, when I went to community college it cost $10 a semester, yes ten dollars! My daughter, on the other hand has a mountain of student loan debt she will never be able to fully repay.
And jobs paid d**k, tv' we're $500 for a 19" color set and an engineer starting position paid $20k/yr. So yeah, stuff was cheaper 40 yrs ago.
Stuff was cheaper but pay wasn't that low. Wage increases have famously trailed inflation by a LOT. My mom did her summer internship more than 20 years ago and made $20k over in less than 3 months. My dad was an engineer at the time and pretty sure $20k was, and still is, a doctoral student's salary. But I think he started at $40-50k as a post-doc and made $60+ at his first job. But bachelor's in engineering now make out of school what PhDs did back then.
Load More Replies...tuition was 700 back in the day they say. I tell them I paid that much for one text book- they sometimes faint (my favorite part)
Lol... Just like saving & actually buying a house. Once upon a time, you could do it with actual cash.
Back in those remote, ancient times when you all weren't alive yet, government support for education made it affordable, even with a student loan. However, the government learned (Nixon admin) that teaching us what we needed to know was bad policy for them, so they trashed support for education. The Reagan admin tinkered with our national cash flow patterns ("trickle down economics", or simply fraud) that caused more capital to be diverted from public into private hands, essentially beginning a self-funding program for the GOP. The George W Bush admin diverted more capital into 'faith based' social programs instead of public programs, making some churches rich enough to buy politicians. And here we are.
I'm a Boomer, and if it weren't for Pell Grants and scholarships I wouldn't have been able to attend college. I think what young people are going through now is unconscionable, esp. non-white students.
I had student loans and I am a Boomer. I would never say that to anyone. I worked at a college for 12 years, and tuition is ridiculous, and books!
🤣🤣 Boomer here finding that hilarious because the truth can actually be funny.
I paid off my tuition in advance by serving 22 years in the Marine Corps
Hmm. Golly I wonder why college was so much cheaper back then? Maybe because only people who PAID FOR IT could go?
It's all about where you choose to go to school and who you know. There's huge cost differences and you get the same result. A box gets checked in a software program saying you have a degree. I went to a local university for cheap and I make twice as much doing the same job just at a different company than some excoworkers who went to name brand universities.
Uhm hang on. I'm a boomer and it took me 20 years to pay mine off.... Commie b*st*rds.
Boomers where smarter , we millennials where just too spoiled and complacent to think things through =:3
In our country and our time it was free, only for the oath FOR communism.
Could someone please just create a Boomer U that has nothing but the amenities of college back in the 1940s? Don't care about AC or central heating, television, WiFi, sports teams on full scholarships? Nothing but textbooks for everyone except science (who get chemicals, glassware, a few safety items they have to share, and the bio lab who get roadkill to dissect). One pay phone per dorm, one big community shower facility per floor, and a student activity center that has a pile of board games and puzzles. Oh, and the Chancellor's costume at graduation must cost less than $500. At least then we could choose the luxury
His lecture was basically 'make excuses not to do it until God threatens to kill you'.
Load More Replies...I have to add that boomers had to cope with psychotic parents because of WWII. Maybe that balances the scales a bit.
In highschool maths we actually DID get an assignment which was to fill out a tax return. I couldn't understand any of it and my dad couldn't help me either... AND HE WORKED AT THE TAX OFFICE. Most of the class failed that assignment, and these days I go to an accountant.
"next, we'll need saffron, unicorn farts, dodo meat, and a taco bell meal that doesn't give you diarrhea!"
Note: this post originally had 87 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
How about a post about great and relatable things about being in your 30s/40s? Do what you like, afford good holidays, wonderful kids, no peer pressure, accepting your body, have own home and car... life is great. I say that as an unemployed single parent; sure life has its struggles, but this makes it sound like total misery, misanthropy, and loneliness.
I'm with ya! Check my reply pal. We are on the same page!
Load More Replies...30 is old?!!! Well give it a few years and the headlines will be 25 and old.. then 20 and old... humans enable this sc..h..it with social media. In 50 years time Our kids and grandkids will be cancelled by the time they are 12! Every few years the age for being young gets smaller and smaller. Get a grip people, grow up face reality! 🙄
In the Sixties young boomers proclaimed "never trust anyone over thirty".
Load More Replies...Okay.. im SICK and TIRED So DISAPPOINTED and yes take offence at my shouty capitals! When was 30 OLD!! My mum has COPD aged 72 and exercises goes out with friends. I feel like I'm in that film LOGANS RUN! when everyone dies by the time they are 30!! What about positives where we finally are settled maybe happy with family and kids or happy no kids etc .... its ridiculous! What happened to learning and growing and just being settled?! Is that such a bad thing! My aunt is 80 and goes on casino cruises!! She loves life to the full!!! Im jealous lol 😆 these articles are ridiculous! No wonder people are s.u.i.c.i.d.a.l xx
Yeah I'm thinking people have overwhelmingly given up on life, and decided to be melodramatic 13 year olds, acting like their life is over, but it's clearly *someone else's fault* or "because not 20 anymore" instead of maybe, idk, finding a hobby.
Load More Replies...God, this is depressing. No matter how much I can relate to many of these now and then, for God's sake, get a GRIP. I am 35 myself, and I may be an exception, but I turning 30 has never been shocking for me, on the contrary. I actually enjoy getting older. But the thing that's bothering me here is all this whining about just wanting to eat pizza and drink wine.You're not a victim of your existence you know, there are SOME things you can do to make it great. And yes, I'm saying that as a low-income, friendless, mentally f****d up human with no drivers license who constantly gets harrassed by the system. Please take SOME responsibility for your life, you're here for a reason.
I get your point but honestly I enjoyed this post. Just a bit of light humour and memes. All good fun and laughing and reminiscing a bit. Yes, many of them are exaggerated but that's the style. Nothing to get upset over.
Load More Replies...I just beat cancer, started dating a bassist, and spend my weekends in mosh pits! Im 45 ffs!
Let's go ahead and cram just one more exhausted meme in there about how much having kids sucks. Even better, we can get some edgy 17-year-old closet virgin to write it. If there's one thing I need for self-betterment as a person, it is to drown in a rising tide of anti-child sentiment as it levels the most narcissistic culture in the planet's history. These f*****g morons have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Second only to my wife, my kids are the best things in my life.
My grandma is 85. Her mom lived to be in her mid 90s. I’m 36. So I might not be middle aged for another 10 years or so. But “middle aged” is just a label anyway, and as someone who lived during the 90s, f**k labels. 😄🤘Labels are limiting. I think people should just appreciate each season of their life for what it is. Stop wasting time trying to figure out what to call it and whether or not you’re acting accordingly.
How about a post about great and relatable things about being in your 30s/40s? Do what you like, afford good holidays, wonderful kids, no peer pressure, accepting your body, have own home and car... life is great. I say that as an unemployed single parent; sure life has its struggles, but this makes it sound like total misery, misanthropy, and loneliness.
I'm with ya! Check my reply pal. We are on the same page!
Load More Replies...30 is old?!!! Well give it a few years and the headlines will be 25 and old.. then 20 and old... humans enable this sc..h..it with social media. In 50 years time Our kids and grandkids will be cancelled by the time they are 12! Every few years the age for being young gets smaller and smaller. Get a grip people, grow up face reality! 🙄
In the Sixties young boomers proclaimed "never trust anyone over thirty".
Load More Replies...Okay.. im SICK and TIRED So DISAPPOINTED and yes take offence at my shouty capitals! When was 30 OLD!! My mum has COPD aged 72 and exercises goes out with friends. I feel like I'm in that film LOGANS RUN! when everyone dies by the time they are 30!! What about positives where we finally are settled maybe happy with family and kids or happy no kids etc .... its ridiculous! What happened to learning and growing and just being settled?! Is that such a bad thing! My aunt is 80 and goes on casino cruises!! She loves life to the full!!! Im jealous lol 😆 these articles are ridiculous! No wonder people are s.u.i.c.i.d.a.l xx
Yeah I'm thinking people have overwhelmingly given up on life, and decided to be melodramatic 13 year olds, acting like their life is over, but it's clearly *someone else's fault* or "because not 20 anymore" instead of maybe, idk, finding a hobby.
Load More Replies...God, this is depressing. No matter how much I can relate to many of these now and then, for God's sake, get a GRIP. I am 35 myself, and I may be an exception, but I turning 30 has never been shocking for me, on the contrary. I actually enjoy getting older. But the thing that's bothering me here is all this whining about just wanting to eat pizza and drink wine.You're not a victim of your existence you know, there are SOME things you can do to make it great. And yes, I'm saying that as a low-income, friendless, mentally f****d up human with no drivers license who constantly gets harrassed by the system. Please take SOME responsibility for your life, you're here for a reason.
I get your point but honestly I enjoyed this post. Just a bit of light humour and memes. All good fun and laughing and reminiscing a bit. Yes, many of them are exaggerated but that's the style. Nothing to get upset over.
Load More Replies...I just beat cancer, started dating a bassist, and spend my weekends in mosh pits! Im 45 ffs!
Let's go ahead and cram just one more exhausted meme in there about how much having kids sucks. Even better, we can get some edgy 17-year-old closet virgin to write it. If there's one thing I need for self-betterment as a person, it is to drown in a rising tide of anti-child sentiment as it levels the most narcissistic culture in the planet's history. These f*****g morons have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Second only to my wife, my kids are the best things in my life.
My grandma is 85. Her mom lived to be in her mid 90s. I’m 36. So I might not be middle aged for another 10 years or so. But “middle aged” is just a label anyway, and as someone who lived during the 90s, f**k labels. 😄🤘Labels are limiting. I think people should just appreciate each season of their life for what it is. Stop wasting time trying to figure out what to call it and whether or not you’re acting accordingly.