When I turned thirty, I had one of those I’ll-never-be-young-again moments. I locked myself at home, watched a string of mindless movies, and mourned for my twenties. I had spent them wisely after all, which is to say that I misspent them thoroughly.

When I turned forty, I had none of the midlife angst that I had heard about from those who went before me. I had more than made up for that a decade before, I suppose. But then I became a grandmother two years later, and my world turned upside down.

Just like that I turned from single mother to grandmother, to someone who knew exactly what she was doing to someone who wondered whether she did things right.

We were all far too young to level up to the next stage. My sons were still in their teens, too young to be called uncles. My daughter wasn’t even twenty, too young to be a mom. Yet, there we all were with only nine months more or less to evolve to our next iteration.

It wasn’t easy, I must admit. With two strong-willed females under one roof, there were bound to be sparks. In time, fortunately, we learned the value of boundaries.

Here, I give way to one of the characters of Crash Landing on You — Yoon Seri, who got upset at Ri Jeong Hyeok for riding off to Pyongyang with his fiance. After getting drunk with her gal pals, she lined the floor with empty beer cans and warned him that as long as he doesn’t cross the line, there wouldn’t be a war.

True enough, when boundaries are respected, wars cease to exist. When roles and responsibilities are honored, sparks fizzle out. Joy springs!

The gift of grandparenthood is that you have an opportunity to become a parent once again — a wiser, calmer parent schooled by experience, armed with wisdom. And I’d say the gift was twice as big for me because it came when I was still relatively young. I had a lot more time to see another human being transform into her own person.

A bonus: I saw a peek at how my sons would be like should they choose to become parents, and I am pleased to no end.

Sophie, my granddaughter is now 12, and I am 53.

When I found out that my then teenaged daughter was pregnant, I thought my world had ended. Little did I know that another more colorful one had just began. Life’s funny that way.