with a month to spare

selected advice about "what's so great about thirty?" emphasis mine on all counts.

• Age is meaningless; it's neither great nor bad to turn 30.
• When I turned 25 I freaked out a bit because it was so close to 30 which seemed so old. However, actually turning 30 was no big deal, and my 30s have been considerably better than my 20s. I've heard that when they ask progressively older people which decade has been best, it's generally whatever decade they're in at that moment. So, don't worry about it.
• I just care less what my friends (or others) think, and more about what I actually want and how I want to achieve that. Long-range planning's a little easier. I don't get as freaked out about minor things because I know what will blow over.
• My friends have really interesting lives and jobs and my life is enriched by knowing them. My 20's friends (some of them are the same, natch) had fun lives and quirky jobs, but there is something to be said for being a bit established in a field/profession doing something you love.
• I agree, the world starts taking you seriously. When I hit 30 I got a big promotion at work, for no reason. I easily could have done the job at 25, but no one thought I was a grownup.
• Apparently, at 30 you get a free pass on chatfilter questions.
• It's a magic number that can slash the cost of your car insurance.
• No point stressing out about 30. It's just an accident of the number system. Did you know when you hit 28 you had your last birthday that was a perfect number? That's never gonna happen again. You're prime now, and will be in a year and two weeks or so, but not again till 37. In two and a bit years you'll be 20 in hex. These so called "round numbers" are nothing to worry about and just an accident due largely to (most of us) having 10 fingers.
• You still have all the energy of your twenties but more experience and wisdom to channel those energies productively. You've already made most of the big dumb mistakes that everyone makes at least once. You are still attractive tot he opposite sex, but now you know what you want from relationships, and how to close the deal. You know a lot more, you have a fuller intellectual life and more varied interests. The thirties is the best of all worlds.
• Bottom line: people in their thirties are cooler than people in their twenties. Would someone in their thirties say something as asinine as "don't trust anyone over 30"? No. Because they are not nitwits.
• Turning 30 sucked because, despite talking about how it didn't bug me, it did. It wasn't the age as much as where my life was, where I was headed and what I hadn't accomplished yet.
  Being 30 was stressful and triumphant and wonderful and tumultous because I decided to do something about that unsettled malaise and become who I wanted to be, despite that not being what other people wanted me to be.
  Now I'm a boring 31 year old person who has her dream life that I built myself. Yep, happy as hell.
• I'm excited about turning 30. I feel like it's a reward for all the hard work of my 20s. Some people call your 20s the Decade of Terror. Your 30s are when you get to use all those lessons learned.
  If 30 still seems really old to you, go make some older friends who will scoff appropriately. I have a good mix of older and younger friends, and it definitely helps me feel comfortable with my own age.