Fun times with accidental noises, and I like the way she thinks for her birthday fundraiser!

Sounds I Still Make in My 30s by Charlotte Clymer

Last lap. Read on Substack

Today is my birthday.

This morning, I was in the backseat of an Uber ride and absentmindedly playing with my lips in the quiet way it’s socially acceptable for grown adults to do (or, perhaps, that’s me rationalizing) when, to my surprise, I accidentally forced too much air through the aperture of my mouth, creating a sound that could understandably be perceived by the driver as a fart.

Mildly panicked, I leapt into action by recreating the sound a few more times in quick succession in order to non-verbally (?) communicate to the driver:

Haha, see? That totally wasn’t what you thought it was! I accidentally made that sound with my lips! I’m now doing it again two or three more times to show that it’s just me playing with my mouth and not doing something very rude right behind you! Actually, making that sound is rude, too — look, I promise I am not blasting ass in the backseat of your car, okay?!

I am 39-years-old today. It’s my final year in this decade. It’s been a doozy.

I turned 30 a little over three weeks before the 2016 election. (I know. We won’t get into that because you already get it.)

All my life, I’ve heard of folks in their late-30s just dreading the big FOUR ZERO, and it’s not my place to judge them. I’m sure they had their reasons.

But me? I’m so ready for my 40s. If I could snap my fingers and make it happen now, I would have turned 40 today. Maybe I’ll just lie and say I’m 40 moving forward.

Being in your 40s sounds awesome. Being in your 50s and 60s sounds even better. I wanna fast-forward and get there already. I want the accumulated wisdom and experience and memories right now. I want that whole toolbox immediately.

Sadly, I cannot have it immediately. That is earned. I must brave the final year of my 30s in our oh-so-stable world to get a little closer to the benefits of being older and wiser.

To that end, I’m gonna make this a great Year 39. I plan to treat it like a final dress rehearsal for the second half of my life.

I’d like y’all to help me get things off to a great start.

Every year, for the past decade, I’ve hosted a birthday fundraiser for my favorite organization Running Start, a non-profit that trains young women in high school and college to run for office someday.

These programs are wide-ranging: from one-day workshops on college campuses (Elect Her) to congressional fellowships to the HBCU Women’s Leadership Summit, thousands of young women have been equipped with necessary skills to go on and do great things in politics, law, advocacy, and media.

I’ve served on the Board of Running Start since 2021, working harmoniously alongside my colleagues—Democrats and Republicans and independents—to ensure the next generation of young women get an exceptional head start toward leading our country someday.

In that time, I have seen a huge, diverse network of alums directly benefit from these programs and then watch as their campuses and communities benefit from them, too.

So, I am kindly asking y’all to help me celebrate my birthday by making a modest donation to Running Start: https://www.runningstart.org/charlotte

And believe me, I get it, everyone and their mother and their cousin is hitting y’all up for money right now — for that campaign or that non-profit or that candidate or that cause and on and on.

Thus, I am grateful for the consideration. It means a lot. I am thankful.

As always, those making very generous donations ($250 or more) should know you’ll be getting a phone call from me to thank you for your generosity, and if you really wanna go above and beyond ($1000 or more), that’ll mean coffee over zoom OR me treating you to lunch here in D.C. (or wherever you live if we can make it happen — no kidding, we will find a way.)

But also: everyone donating will get a personal email from me thanking them because every donation, no matter how much, means something to me and the young women who benefit from Running Start’s programs.

In the meantime, please wish me luck on this final lap of my 30s, and if you could offer up a prayer that I’ll avoid embarrassing sounds in cars, I’d appreciate that, too.