In seven days I turn 28, the age my mom warned(?)promised(?)declared that "everything" would change: how I act and react, what I desire and how I work for it. Hopefully not my favorite color, though. That should always be green.
I did a quick Google search to try and find out if the everything-changes-at-twenty-eight is some wive's tale or a conclusion my mom came to based on her own experiences. And I was surprised to find that a maybe semi-well-known, semi-scientific explanation for this shift is "the 7 year cycle."
This cycle might be more pseudoscientific or philosophical than anything else, so it's hard to find any literature or studies on the topic. I thought I stumbled on something promising when I found a blurb from Your Best Life at Any Age by psychologist Andrew Fuller—a book that examines life stages based on interviews with over 500,000 people around the world—but it was self-published and unavailable through the Milwaukee Public Library System. A little more searching led me to someone who may lay claim to the seven-year cycle theory: an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and clairvoyant named Rudolph Steiner. Steiner helped develop the Waldorf education system informed by his theory of seven-year stages. Just based on what I've heard about Waldorf kids, Steiner might be the most convincing expert yet.
There are heaps of spiritual teachers and deep-trance mediums writing articles, publishing podcast episodes, and posting on Reddit about how the seven year cycle "is manifesting right now" and how Saturn is to blame. These are all apocryphal-sounding spins on the theory of "the seven year itch," popularized by the movie of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewel, in which the "itch" is that after seven years of marriage, a man meets a woman, never learns her name, and emotionally (and likely physically if it were not for Hollywood's Hays Code) cheats on his wife with her. The original "seven year itch" was scabies. Also skin-related: that saying that your cells regenerate every seven years may be inaccurate, but it is based on the average lifespan of all the cells in the human body. The number seven strikes again.
The number seven pops up across cultures: in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and other ancient belief systems. It's called the angel number, and said that it connects the human and the divine. Google "meaning of the number 7" and there is no shortage of web pages dedicated to its significance.
What I learned from this internet deep dive is that this seven-year time bomb—whether it ends with a cured skin infection, an extramarital affair, or simply a desire for something new—should be approached with caution. Although each life has its unpredictable quirks and surprises, we should pause at least every seven years to consider what could be a pivotal point of possibility, an end of an era, in which new opportunities arise
I never know where Saturn is. I've never liked making outlines or storyboards. I didn't get much out of my adviser in high school or college. I've never made career goals or relationship goals. I've always felt happy by simply taking control where it's needed, taking small steps rather than making big decisions.
Only very recently have I begun to think about what I want to learn, who I need to know, and what I should do in order to claim who I am in the next 5, 6, or…7 years.
When I'm 28, I'm getting married to someone I've been dating for seven years.
When I'm 29, my mother will have been gone for seven years and I will have been out of college for seven years.
When I'm 30, I will have been at the same job for seven years.
Honestly though, looking back at this year, I really hope not that much changes.
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