On "30"

On Saturday I turned 30. And while I could wax all philosophical and ontological and epistemological about turning 30, I'll just note this one thing: In journalism, especially newspapers, the tag "- 30 -" traditionally has meant the end of the story—that's it, there's nothing more, that's all she wrote, finito. When I was 16 and wrote my first newspaper story (on a high school football game, attended by maybe 75 people), I remember how my dad, a newspaper veteran from the hot-type days, made certain that I ended with "30."

So, let's hope I'm not "finished" at 30—heck, I haven't even finished school, so life has only just begun.