Once you reach a certain point, getting older becomes a drag rather than something you look forward to every year - but what if we told you that you're actually older than you think you are?
That's the unfortunate truth discovered by one woman on TikTok, who was excited to start the last year of her 20s until she realised that she wasn't really the age she thought she was.
The woman, named Emma, posted the viral video in March ahead of her birthday in April, and said she had been hoping to live her life to the fullest before turning 30 - but soon realised she was technically already there.
And Emma even prefaced the clip by telling people to "keep scrolling" if they didn't want her to "ruin their lives", as the news was bound to upset many.
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She then explained: "It's my birthday next month and I started thinking, holy s**t, I'm 29 next month and it's the last year of my 20s. And then I realised.
"Your first birthday is when you've completed that year. Your birthday is like a congratulation for all the work you've just done - the last 365 days, right?
"So I'm turning 29 next month, which means I've actually completed the 29th year of my life. So on my birthday, I'm actually starting my 30th year of life.
"Now I've just lost a whole year because I hadn't clocked that this year was actually the last year of my 20s and now it's almost the first year of my 30s."
The realisation came as a shock for many people in the comments of the video - which was posted to Emma's @emmaflicc_ account - who were left "mind-blown" by the discovery.
One person said: "This blew my mind."
While another wrote: "Me, who has just turned 28, feeling sudden panic."
And a third posted: "Well as if I wasn't depressed enough, now I'm just closer to 30 than I thought I was."
But others made sure to note that it's not as bad as it seems, as the day after Emma's birthday she would be 29 years and 1 day old, rather than immediately turning 30.
Someone said: "But you’ll be 29 and 1 day, not 30 and 1 day so you’ve still got another year don’t worry."
As someone else added: "But you are only a day older than the day before not a whole year."
And other commenters also noted that some countries already tackle this problem by using a system which means a baby is thought of as being aged one when they are born, so that every birthday dictates the year of life they are starting.
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