In Chinese, there’s a saying “三十而立” (san shi er li), which originates from Confucius. It means that by the age of thirty, a person should be able to stand on their own, have a clear sense of self, and possess the ability to prove their worth.

So when I turned thirty, I had a strange feeling. On one hand, according to society’s expectations, I had reached an age where I should have achieved something. On the other hand, I was very aware that I still had many uncertainties about various things.

When someone asked me, “Now that you’re thirty, do you feel anything special?”

I thought to myself, “This day isn’t any different from any other. After it passes, I’m still just as uncertain.”

However, there’s one thing I’m certain about: I don’t want to go back to my early twenties.

Why is that? I’ll talk about it in this episode of the podcast.

在中文里有“三十而立”的这样一个说法(来源于孔子),意思是说一个人到了三十岁之后要能够自立,有自己的核心,有能力证明自己。

因此,当我三十岁的时候,我有一种很奇怪的感觉,一方面根据外界的期待,我已经到了应该有一定成就的年龄;另一方面我又很清楚,自己对于很多事情还是有很多疑惑。

当有人问我:三十岁了,你有什么特殊的感觉吗?

我心想:三十岁这一天和其他的日子没有什么不同,过了之后,我还是一样的疑惑。

但是我一件事情我很清楚:我并不想回到二十岁出头的时候。

为什么呢?这期播客里我来聊一聊。

Podcast

Podcast Video (with bilingual subtitle)

Additional learning materials

Categories: Podcast