Increasing appearances of white hair, wrinkles and sagging skin aside, I’m feeling the years creeping up on me from these situations:

1. I can no longer tick the ‘Age: 20-29’ option in forms that I have to fill in.

2. For my travel luggage, I have ‘evolved’ from using a huge backpack to a trolley bag. Shoulders don’t want to bear that kind of weight anymore.

3. When I’m being called ‘靓姐leng jie‘ (pretty lady) rather than ‘靓女leng lui‘ (pretty girl) by street vendors in Hong Kong who are trying to solicit business. Or in Singapore, called ‘小姐xiaojie‘ (lady) rather than ‘小妹xiaomei‘ (girl).

4. When photos of my friends’ kids start showing up endlessly on my Facebook feed. Or when all my friends can talk about are their kids, schools and enrichment classes.

5. I have been feeling very lazy to make new friends. I’m a bit sick of answering questions about where I am from, how long I have been in Hong Kong and what I work as. I am tired of asking those questions of people too. A jaded 30-something phenomenon for you.

6. When I find myself saying “Young people these days…”

7. When I’m standing in front of and delivering an English writing course to a big group of fresh graduates. Being so young and fresh out of school, most of them are so earnest in taking notes. Bless them.

8. I no longer want to Couchsurf or host Couchsurfers because I treasure my privacy more now.