On 31 October 2026, I turned 28.
And honestly, turning 28 feels a little scary.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but there’s something about reaching this particular age that makes you pause and look at your life differently. Maybe it’s because of all the movies, television series, anime, books, and coming-of-age stories I’ve grown up watching and reading. Or maybe it’s simply the realisation that life is moving forward, whether you’re ready for it or not.
I still don’t think I’m the most mature person in the room. In fact, there are plenty of moments when I feel like I’m just pretending to be mature because that’s what society expects from me.
The truth is, I still want to be that person who procrastinates, delays things until the last possible moment, stays at home watching movies, reads manga, picks up books that he might never use in practical life, and spends hours trying to understand things he probably doesn’t even need to know.
I want to understand things I have absolutely no business understanding. I want to explore fictional worlds, learn about superpowers, understand how Batman thinks, figure out how Superman works, and get lost in stories that have absolutely nothing to do with my everyday responsibilities.
I still want to be that person.
And I don’t want to grow out of him.
But then comes 28.
And suddenly, there’s this entire world of responsibilities that you’re expected to understand, accommodate, and eventually become comfortable with.
I’ve always found an interesting parallel between growing up and Spider-Man.
When Peter Parker first gets his powers, everything is new. You’re young, excited, experimenting, making mistakes, discovering what you’re capable of, and enjoying the entire experience.
I sometimes think of our late teenage years and early twenties in a similar way. It’s almost like getting those powers for the first time. You have all this potential, all these possibilities, and absolutely no idea what you’re supposed to do with them.
But as you grow older, the story changes.
You aren’t just the new Spider-Man anymore. You become the Spider-Man who has to understand what it actually means to be Spider-Man.
And that’s when the responsibilities start showing up.
The Sinister Six, except in our version, they aren’t supervillains. They’re financial responsibilities, career decisions, expectations, relationships, marriage, family, commitments, and the rest of it keeps appearing as you move forward in life.
You don’t get to choose when they show up. You just have to figure out how to deal with them.
And perhaps that’s what turning 28 feels like.
The birthday that turned out to be more than an ordinary day
But before getting into all of that, I want to remember 31 October.
Because that day was something else.
It was supposed to be a regular Saturday. The last Saturday of the month, which is usually a weekly off for us. Nothing particularly extraordinary was planned.
The morning was pretty much the usual routine. Wake up, do the household chores, spend some time with family, and go about the day.
My family has been around for a while now. They usually aren’t here because I’ve been living away from them for almost five years. So having them around has been a different kind of happiness in itself.
The evening was already planned because our company’s Diwali celebration was coincidentally scheduled for the same day as my birthday.
So, in my head, the day was pretty much sorted.
But sometimes, the best parts of life are the ones you don’t really plan for.
I received messages from quite a few people I honestly didn’t expect to hear from. People reached out personally, sent birthday wishes, and made the effort to remember.
I don’t usually keep a lot of expectations from people when it comes to these things. I believe more in putting in the effort than expecting it in return. But that doesn’t mean those little gestures don’t matter.
They do.
And on that day, I realised just how much they do.
Two of my closest friends came over and gifted me a bouquet.
Now, here’s the interesting part. I’d been craving a bouquet for months. I’d actually been saving up to buy one myself, but it was also something I had kept on my list of things I wanted to get eventually.
And then they just showed up with one.
They also gifted me an anime collectible that had been in my pipeline for quite some time. Being an anime collector, I usually allocate a certain amount every month or every quarter towards these things. So this was something I was genuinely looking forward to.
And receiving it as a gift made it even more special.
My parents had also arranged a cake for me. They tried their best to hide it and make it a surprise.
Unfortunately, they forgot one very important thing.
I search the fridge more thoroughly than I search Google.
So, naturally, the surprise didn’t remain a surprise for very long.
But it was still lovely.
Then came the office celebrations.
The Diwali festivities were going on, and somewhere in between all the activities and games, I was participating in a game of Congested, where I had three chances.
And suddenly, someone announced, “Hey, it’s his birthday!”
Before I could even process what was happening, everyone started clapping and shouting Happy Birthday together.
I don’t know how to explain that particular moment.
Usually, office celebrations can sometimes feel like formalities. People wish each other, cut cakes, take pictures, and get back to their regular routines.
But this felt different.
At 28, I genuinely didn’t expect a moment like that to affect me so much.
I was overwhelmed. I didn’t anticipate it, and I think that’s what made it special.
And then there was one more surprise.
After the main celebrations, most people had to leave. They had their own plans, their homes to reach, and their evenings to continue. And obviously, we couldn’t turn the entire company Diwali celebration into my birthday party.
But there’s a small group of people, usually around 15–20 of us, who tend to stay back after these celebrations.
We have our own little after-party routine. Mafia, Dumb Charades, random conversations, and all those things that happen when the formal part of an event is over.
And once most people had left, these people arranged another cake-cutting celebration for me.
It was such a simple gesture, but I was genuinely overwhelmed.
The day had started as an ordinary Saturday, and suddenly I had all these little memories that I knew I would carry with me.
I don’t think I had anticipated feeling so much in a single day.
That is one of the things I want to remember about turning 28.
Growing up changes the way we celebrate
When we were kids, birthdays were an entirely different experience.
I still remember the excitement of knowing that it was my birthday the next day. Deciding which dress I was going to wear to school, carrying chocolates, figuring out whom I would distribute them to first, and that little rush of being the centre of attention for an entire day.
Those were such simple things, but they meant so much.
Somewhere along the way, that excitement slowly fades or, perhaps, changes its form.
It’s not that those moments stop existing. It’s not that life stops giving us reasons to celebrate. We simply grow into different surroundings, meet different people, build new families, and create new memories.
I sometimes think of it like trees shedding their leaves and growing new ones.
The tree doesn’t stop growing just because it has shed its old leaves. It simply makes room for new ones.
Perhaps we do something similar.
The people around us change. The places we call home change. The things that make us happy change. And slowly, without even realising it, we build new circles, new relationships, and new families.
When we’re children, family is something we’re born into.
As we grow older, we also build families of our own through friendships, colleagues, teammates, and people who become an important part of our everyday lives.
And 31 October was a reminder that these people matter.
A lot.
I think that’s also why I felt every moment of it so deeply.
There are people who might describe me as emotionally distant or emotionally unavailable. Someone whose EQ isn’t particularly high. Someone who doesn’t always know how to express things or understand certain emotional situations.
And I won’t necessarily disagree with all of that.
I’m not always the person who can understand why someone is upset without them telling me. I’m not particularly good at deducing what someone is feeling or what might have made them uncomfortable.
I can deduce formulas. I can understand engineering principles. I can spend hours figuring out how search engine rankings work, how certain systems operate, or how fictional characters acquire their superpowers.
But human emotions?
That’s a completely different subject.
There isn’t always a formula to work with.
That is something I still have to learn.
But on my birthday, I felt loved. I felt remembered. I felt appreciated.
And I didn’t have to deduce anything.
It was right there, in the little gestures, the messages, the gifts, the celebrations, and the people who made an effort.
The dilemma of growing up
Now, coming back to the actual dilemma of turning 28.
I think there’s a lot more to it than just responsibilities.
One of the biggest things that comes with this age is the expectation of settling down. Getting married, finding a partner, building a family, buying a house, and having some sort of stability in life.
And for someone who has spent a considerable part of his life appreciating solitude, this is a rather crazy dilemma.
I genuinely enjoy being alone.
I like having my own space, my own routine, my own time, and the freedom to do things without having to explain every little decision.
I can spend hours watching movies, reading manga, exploring random subjects, or simply doing absolutely nothing.
And I don’t feel that something is missing.
But at the same time, I want to be loved.
I want meaningful connections. I want people around me. I want to experience companionship and the kind of emotional intimacy that makes you feel understood.
And that’s where things get complicated.
Because I understand that relationships come with responsibilities of their own.
Communication matters. Being available matters. Understanding your partner matters. Sometimes, you are expected to understand when the other person is upset, what made them uncomfortable, or why something you said might have hurt them.
And I’m not always that person.
Not because I don’t care, but because I don’t always know how to read them.
I’ve never really been in that kind of environment where I’ve had to understand these expectations naturally. And suddenly, I’m looking at a world where people expect you to know things that nobody teaches you.
There’s also this strange realisation that the world I had imagined growing up isn’t the world that exists.
The world I fantasised about through movies, television, anime, and stories is quite different from the real world.
Real relationships are different. Real responsibilities are different. Real adulthood is different.
And perhaps that’s one of the reasons I find myself questioning so much.
Sometimes, I feel like there are two completely different versions of me living in the same person.
One version wants to be the most productive person in the room. The other wants to be the most relaxed version of himself.
One wants to build something meaningful, take responsibility, achieve something, and keep moving forward.
The other wants to procrastinate, delay everything, stay at home, watch movies, read books, collect anime merchandise, and occasionally do absolutely nothing.
One wants to be loved and have companionship.
The other is perfectly comfortable being alone.
One wants responsibilities more than anything.
The other wants to avoid them for as long as possible.
And the funny part is that I don’t want to get rid of either version.
I want both.
Maybe that’s why turning 28 feels like an existential crisis all over again.
The invisible timeline
And then there’s the question of time.
I look around and see people my age, and sometimes even younger, achieving different milestones in life.
Some of my friends have bought houses. Some are getting married. Some have built careers, established businesses, and reached places they had once dreamed of.
And I’m still working towards some of what they have already done.
I understand that everyone’s journey is different.
My career runs on a different track from theirs, and so do my goals.
What might be a milestone for someone else could still be a goal I’m working towards.
And I genuinely understand that.
I’m not trying to define my life through somebody else’s achievements.
But sometimes, even when you understand all of this logically, there’s still that little voice in your head.
Am I moving fast enough?
Am I doing enough?
Am I somewhere outside the loop while everyone else seems to be moving forward?
Is time slipping away?
Am I not keeping up?
And I think that’s the part people don’t talk about.
You can be happy for your friends, genuinely celebrate their achievements, appreciate their journeys, and still occasionally wonder where you stand in your own.
These feelings can coexist.
It’s not always jealousy. It isn’t dissatisfaction with your own life.
Sometimes, it’s just the awareness that time is moving and you still have so much you want to figure out.
And the thing is, I know I cannot ask the clock to stop.
The clock has to move forward.
That’s how the system works.
I cannot tell life to wait until I’ve figured out my career, my relationships, my finances, my responsibilities, or what I actually want from the next decade.
Life doesn’t work that way.
You keep moving.
And perhaps that’s the actual fear. Not losing who I am, but knowing that there is so much I haven’t figured out, and the next chapter is going to arrive regardless.
Nobody really knows what they’re doing
I’ve seen and experienced quite a few things already. I’ve been part of different journeys, environments, situations and phases of life.
But the more I experience, the more I realise how little I actually know.
And here’s something I’ve been thinking about:
Everyone wants to know what they’re doing. Nobody actually does.
Isn’t that strange?
We spend so much of our lives trying to find a direction, a plan, a timeline, or some sort of instruction manual that tells us we’re doing things right.
We want to know when we’ll be successful, when we’ll settle down, when we’ll find our person, when we’ll have a home, and when life will finally start making sense.
We want certainty.
We want to believe that there’s a sequence of events that we’re supposed to follow, and if we follow it correctly, everything will eventually fall into place.
But nobody has those answers.
Some people are figuring out their careers. Some are figuring out relationships. Some are figuring out how to be happy with themselves. Some are trying to understand their responsibilities, while others are simply trying to get through the week.
Yet, somehow, we all carry this invisible expectation that we’re supposed to have things figured out by a certain age.
Maybe that’s the irony of adulthood.
We’re all improvising, but everyone is trying to look like they have rehearsed their lines.
Still figuring out what it means to be Spider-Man
And somewhere in between all of this, I still find myself thinking about Spider-Man.
Peter Parker didn’t get to choose all the responsibilities that came with his powers. He had to learn, make mistakes, lose things, figure things out, and keep going.
And perhaps that’s what growing up is.
You don’t become a completely different person overnight. You just keep discovering new responsibilities, new expectations, new people, and new versions of yourself.
You learn to carry weight you didn’t know you would have to carry.
And maybe the Sinister Six aren’t really the villains of the story. Maybe they’re just the different responsibilities that life keeps throwing at you.
Some days you defeat them. Some days they defeat you.
And some days, you just want to put on your favourite movie, switch off your phone, and pretend none of them exist.
I think I still want that.
I still want to be the person who gets excited about a new anime collectible. The person who can spend hours discussing a fictional universe. The person who reads books without a practical reason for reading them. The person who can be lazy, procrastinate, and enjoy the little things without feeling guilty about it.
I don’t want adulthood to become a reason to abandon all of that.
But I also understand that I cannot spend my entire life avoiding what comes with moving forward.
Maybe the trick is figuring out how to accommodate both.
I don’t know.
That may be the most honest thing I can say about turning 28.
I don’t have everything figured out. I don’t know exactly what the next few years will look like. I don’t know how I’ll balance solitude with companionship, ambition with relaxation, freedom with responsibility, or the person I am with the person I’m still becoming.
But 31 October reminded me of something important.
Regardless of how confusing life gets, there are people around us who make the journey worthwhile.
My family, who are here after years of living apart. My closest friends, who remembered the little things I wanted. My colleagues, who made an ordinary office celebration feel personal. And those 15–20 people who stayed back and made sure the day didn’t end without another little birthday celebration.
All of you made me feel something that I don’t think I can properly put into words.
You reminded me that life isn’t only about the milestones we achieve or the responsibilities we accumulate.
It’s also about the people we meet, the memories we create, and the little moments that make an otherwise ordinary day extraordinary.
Perhaps growing older isn’t just about losing old versions of happiness.
It’s also about discovering new ones.
And maybe, just maybe, turning 28 doesn’t mean I need to have everything figured out.
Maybe I just need to keep moving, keep learning, keep making mistakes, keep appreciating the people around me, and somehow find a way to deal with the Sinister Six.
Because, well…
With great power comes great responsibility.
And apparently, with great responsibility comes a lot of overthinking.
Here’s to 28.
Still figuring things out. Still a little immature. Still procrastinating. Still collecting anime merchandise. Still wanting to watch one more movie.
And hopefully, still finding reasons to be excited about life.
Thank you to everyone who made 31 October 2026 feel special. I might not always know how to express it, but I felt every bit of it.