Today is my birthday, and I’ve officially entered my late-twenties: 28. There was some debate last year about what the 27th birthday signified, and I argued that 27 was still considered late-mid-twenties. But now I must fully embrace my late-twenties. And I’m okay with that – I know it’s not really that old, but…still, even now, I’m feeling it. I get sore after one frisbee game, I have to spend a lot more time warming up and stretching, or my back and shins start to hurt. And…let’s be honest: I can’t drink and eat whatever I want anymore without there being visible effects. And that brings me to the point of the title of this post: I’m “that guy.”
Since I went to a Christian college, a lot of my friends got married during college, especially towards graduation. There were a few instances I can remember when I saw the couple 1-2 years later, and I was often struck by one thing: the husband had definitely put on like 10-20 pounds. He’d normally joke about it like, “Yes, marriage has been good to me….” or “I’m definitely eating better now….” and we’d laugh, but I’d secretly pray and hope that I wouldn’t ever become “that guy.”
Well, birthdays and New Years are both great times to take stock of our lives, to look ahead to the next year and think about what needs to happen. The other day I realized that if I ran into some of my old college friends, and they were to see me today, they’d realize that I’d become “that guy.” It’s probably a combination of school, lack of exercise, blogging(?) and my metabolism not being able to keep up with my eating/drinking habits. It’d be great to be able to lose 10-15 pounds; I’m hoping that once we get out to Berkeley, I’m able to find a job, join a gym, and get to work on this a little bit. I just found it humorous the other day when I realized that yes, actually, I’m that guy. Anyone else experience this phenomenon after getting married?