I’m of the belief that 24 will be the greatest age of my life. Why? I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve always believed and now that I’ve reached it, I am really hoping that my belief is more premonition than fantasy!
I put turning 24 down as the catalyst for me actually starting a continuous blog. I needed an outlet to continue my writing…and something to inspire me to start my career and not work another retail Christmas. Therefore I will use this column to update you on how, or how not, my life and career has improved as a result of Being 24.
Anyway, it’s not like this theory just popped into my head a few months back when I thought, “Hey, Ben…probably should get your life together. I mean 24…getting on”. I’ve always been a fan.
Let me take you back, circa ’97, we just witnessed Drew Barrymore get sliced and diced in Scream (yeah sorry Mum…I kind of sneakily watched it when I wasn’t allowed), and I was a big fan of maths. In retrospect I like to think I wasn’t a fan of maths, merely a child prodigy, however the love of 24 kind of dispels the charade that is my delusion. Anyway, around this time I realised that 24 is divisible by a large amount of numbers, nay, a HUGE amount. I’ll run you through. Obviously one, then two, and three, yep four is too, not five but hot dang, we have a winner in six, and then eight, twelve and 24…yep…8 numbers. Now as far as I can tell now, and I’ve really lost my interested in numerical joy, that is a high percentage of numbers below 24 that are divisible into it. Confused? I sure am, but at 10…I thought this was amazing and after the hollow feeling of realising I would never add another digit to my age unless I lasted 90 more years, I was pretty pumped for the time I reached 24!
My other theory as to why I believe 24 is when my life kick-starts is that, quite controversially, I believe it to be the beginning of your mid-20s. Debate raged long and hard at work during my birthday week as to when the mid-20s actually began. While most of my co-workers believed it was at 25, which yes, technically is the middle of your 20s, I’m of the belief that your early-20s constitute of 21-23, mid-20s range from 24-26 and the late-20s include 27-29. Each classification getting three years…oh, maybe I should just drop in here that I am pretty anal and like order so that could have something to do with what some may describe as my “aggressive defence of pointless discussions”, which I think simply screams of “you’re right…just shut up and don’t gloat”.
Getting back upon the topic, I believe that the mid-20s are the perfect point at which to start your career. You’re no longer in your teens, broody and angst ridden like a Ryan Attwood / Marissa Cooper hybrid, or working through uni in a drunken blur of cheap beer/passion pop/goon and chips and gravy. You’ve graduated, you’ve got a degree in hand and HOPEFULLY, although my parents and siblings may disagree, you’ve grown up, learnt from your experiences and are ready to break out of the little microcosm you’ve been living within and enter the real, real, REAL world…which is in no way related to the university OF the real world I chose not to attend (I like me some sandstone)!
Back to the number bringing you today’s post. On doing some research into my career crushes, you will notice that 24 is when awesome stuff seems to happen. For example, Mia Freedman became the youngest editor of Cosmopolitan in 1996, when you guessed it…she was 24 (god do I feel inferior now). Kerry O’Brien was married with three children…by 24. Jake Gyllenhaal (less career-crush, more man-crush) starred in blockbuster (I use that term dubiously), The Day After Tomorrow…at 24. Sylvia Jeffreys was made weekend weather presenter for Nine News Queensland…at 24. Ernest Hemingway described JD Salinger as having “one hell of a talent” when Salinger was only…well 25, but in my defence he had written the work that bore forth the description at 24 so I’m sticking with it.
You can say my belief of great things happening at 24 is crazed, however the day of my birthday also marked a Social Media milestone and I have decided to view it as an omen. I hit 100 followers on Twitter. Is there anything that screams career success more than cracking into the third digit of followers when you really have little of importance to say? I think not.
So while I’ve entered into the year of 24 with much hope, and a whole lot of idiotic theories, I actually believe this is my time to shine. So while my friend Amy-May believed 23 was her year…and then she met her hero Nigella Lawson whilst being 23, 24 is what its all about for me. And I mean I met Nigella in my birthday week so surely THAT is an omen of good things to come? Surely!
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