Media personalities Michelle Andrews and Zara MacDonald have revealed the strange, inevitable events that happen to everyone in their late twenties.
Michelle, 30, and Zara, 29, are co-hosts of the hit podcast Shameless And recently they revealed a new term they’ve coined.
“We call it the late 20s switch, and we wanted to explore our thoughts about it,” Michelle said.
Zara turns 30 next month and said everything feels “different” now.
Michelle said she feels like she embodies the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song. Florida“All my friends smell like marijuana or babies,” she sings.
She elaborated further, explaining that she felt like her friends were split into two groups: those who were having kids and getting married, and those who were entering another phase of their lives, “partying” and “traveling around Europe.”
Zara said she feels the same way: People are moving towards calmer times and “freedom”, which means loved ones suddenly find themselves at a completely different point in their lives.
She went on to reveal that recently, when she and Michelle were alone in the office, she began talking about how she’d been struggling with the winter blues.
But Zara said she doesn’t think it’s the cold weather that’s to blame, but rather the realisation that her life is changing.
“From early May to the end of April, I started looking around and wondering where everyone had gone,” she said.
“And I realized why everyone was suddenly pursuing different things, and that there was a lack of uniformity in the way that me and my friends were living.”
Zara said the incident happened overnight and it hit her like a “tonne of bricks”.
She stressed that she still sees her friends and is in love with them, but in between catch-ups she finds everyone keeping their heads down and focusing on their busy lives, and she doesn’t feel ready for a future where things will be more distant.
“It’s like coming to a party and being outside and looking around and seeing everyone inside and wanting everyone to come back outside,” she said.
Michelle feels the same way, but says a different metaphor helps her understand what’s going on: imagine all her friends have switches above their heads, and some of them are turned off.
“Every time I wake up, I flip the switch and become a different person and enter a new chapter,” she said.
Michelle said she never succumbed to the rumors that turning 30 was a big deal, but realized how things change after reaching that age.
“I thought turning 30 would be totally fine,” she says.
Psychologist Carly Dover said that once people leave their 20s, they tend to become more emotional.
“In your late 20s there are also a lot of societal and cultural pressures, including the expectation to settle down, have a family, get married and choose a career,” she said.
“I don’t believe that anyone needs to live a certain way.
“But when you try to live a different life, the stress from family, friends and people around you can make you feel like there’s something wrong with you, that you’re behind, that you’re not good enough. That’s very stressful.”
