On the morning of journalist Rachel Syme's 36th birthday, she took to Twitter to ask: "I feel like 33-38 is a really tough age for a lot of women I know; feels like so many big decisions and future plans have to be squeezed into this lil window; just me?
"It's not just a baby decision which, yes, is huge in those years and looms over everything. It feels like all my friends this year are doing this huge re-evaluation of everything. It's a time of lurches and swerves."
It turned out, that no, it was not just her.
Instead, she had touched a nerve and was sent an avalanche of shared experiences and advice by a swathe of strangers from around the world who understood exactly how she felt. There were hundreds of responses, just under 1,000 retweets and 9,000 likes.
Rachel told the BBC: "The messages, both private and public, just don't stop coming.
"I felt like somewhere in my youth, I decided that 36 was my 'scary age' but now it feels like I'm here and while things are coalescing both in good ways professionally and personally, it's also in a scary way."
She added that the people contacting her were "describing how they were 'going through the swerve' so that's what I'm now calling it".
Rachel said she would look around and see her friends who were in the same age bracket all experiencing this "unspoken period of change" involving major life decisions.
Some were new mums, others were breaking up with their long-term partners and others were moving across the country.
"I feel like nobody talks to you about what it's like to be this age. We have the youth; spunk, energy, beauty, and there's so many things people feel like they must do - but where are the conversations about all of the big decisions we need to make?"
Although the New Yorker hoped her vulnerability on Twitter would be a "generative exercise", she never expected it to spark such a global conversation.
"I read so many articles about people who live with their parents for longer than before, while we also know our generation has such little job security," she said.
She added that people take longer to settle down, live longer and have more choice. "Basically there is just so much going on."
by Dhruti Shah, BBC | Read more:
Image: Rachel Syme
[ed. Certainly was a swerve time for me.]
"It's not just a baby decision which, yes, is huge in those years and looms over everything. It feels like all my friends this year are doing this huge re-evaluation of everything. It's a time of lurches and swerves."
It turned out, that no, it was not just her.
Instead, she had touched a nerve and was sent an avalanche of shared experiences and advice by a swathe of strangers from around the world who understood exactly how she felt. There were hundreds of responses, just under 1,000 retweets and 9,000 likes.Rachel told the BBC: "The messages, both private and public, just don't stop coming.
"I felt like somewhere in my youth, I decided that 36 was my 'scary age' but now it feels like I'm here and while things are coalescing both in good ways professionally and personally, it's also in a scary way."
She added that the people contacting her were "describing how they were 'going through the swerve' so that's what I'm now calling it".
Rachel said she would look around and see her friends who were in the same age bracket all experiencing this "unspoken period of change" involving major life decisions.
Some were new mums, others were breaking up with their long-term partners and others were moving across the country.
"I feel like nobody talks to you about what it's like to be this age. We have the youth; spunk, energy, beauty, and there's so many things people feel like they must do - but where are the conversations about all of the big decisions we need to make?"
Although the New Yorker hoped her vulnerability on Twitter would be a "generative exercise", she never expected it to spark such a global conversation.
"I read so many articles about people who live with their parents for longer than before, while we also know our generation has such little job security," she said.
She added that people take longer to settle down, live longer and have more choice. "Basically there is just so much going on."
Image: Rachel Syme
[ed. Certainly was a swerve time for me.]
