"Here’s what I want in the next ten years: More love. More creativity in every area of my life. More good conversations with people I love. More goat cheese and more Ruby Red grapefruits. More comfort in my heart. More sleep-overs at the ABL. More friends and more family. More traveling. More pedicures. More risk-taking and more willingness to fail. More certainty. More stupid fake accents. More ambition and more determination. More trust. More kittens. More karaoke. More riding my bike and more dancing. More staying up late and more sleeping in. More really pretty jewelry and more books in my bookshelves. More gorgeousness. More parties. More knowledge about and more usefulness to the community and…hell, while I’m being cheesy, I may as well go for it…and to the world. More feather boas and fake tattoos. More of everything I haven’t had enough of yet, more being exactly what I am and nothing else."
-Chiara

"I am THIRTY today! I officially turned OLD today! I feel like such an f'n looser! I ate like a psycho f'n cow last night ... two bowls of icecream a piece of cake about a serving of chips and salad mix because I was depressed about today. I am going gray and am fugly!"
-a message board post cached by Google

"I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation."
-David St. Hubbins

"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

"But you know that old thing, live fast, die young? Not my way. Live fast, sure--live too bloody fast sometimes--but die young? Die old."
-The Office

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.
-Georges Clemencea

"And did you get what you wanted
from this life even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved,
to feel myself beloved on this earth."
-Raymond Carver

"She woke up in the morning and all she could see were stretch marks and gray hair, her face sagging before the mirror. She is loose in her skin in spite of her best efforts. Some women require more upkeep—she was the sort that required to be kept up by someone other than herself."
-"Past Marriagable Age" (a poem)

"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
-Mahatma Gandhi

"Maybe what I'm saying is, is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, I mean, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don't know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was, uh, racked with insecurity, you know? Now I'm older and my problems are deeper, but I'm more equipped to handle them. "
-Before Sunset

"Time and Tide wait for no man,
but time always stands still for a woman of thirty."
-Robert Frost

"Maybe you'll never find your purpose. Lots of people don't."
"But then, I don't know why I'm even alive!
"Well, who does, really?"
-Avenue Q

"You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough."
-Joe Lewis

"Hi Monique,if you try to reach us this weekend we are in Bakersfield with a square dance convention.But then again most likely you are very busy yourselfwith celebrating your 30" birthday with all your friends .So live it upp and let them spoil you okay. Love Mom and Dad!!!!!!!"
-My father (in an email)

"At 20 years of age the will reigns; at 30 the wit; at 40 the judgement."
-Benjamin Franklin

"It's been a good day to turn thirty as days to turn thirty go."
-Eliza

"Honey, the only thing you have to be by the age of 23 is yourself."
-Reality Bites