A lot of people freak out about turning 30.
Just Google "30 Years Old" or "Turning 30" and the internet is full of articles and images like "How to Accept The Milestone", "I'm 30: Have You Seen My Youth?", & "It's All A Big Joke Until it Happens to You!". Our pop culture is full of television episodes about the characters having mental break downs about turning 30; my particular favorite is the Friends episode when Joey turns 30 and they all reminisce about how badly each of them dealt with their 30th birthdays.
I wouldn't exactly say I am excited about turning 30 but I am also definitely not dreading the moment. However, I have been consciously thinking about the infamous birthday for quite sometime. I think it comes down to the fact that as a kid, you think 30 is very old, and that you will have accomplished so much by that point. But here I am, a few months shy of 29, and I still don't feel like a real grown up.
I am proud of many of the things I have done with my life so far. I graduated college, I have glided through the air 4,000 feet in the sky in the tiniest plane you have ever seen, I married the love of my life, I have been to all the monuments, including the White House, on the DC Mall, I have had two great jobs where I was continuously promoted, I have been the to the famous Arch of Cabo San Lucas and seen Land's End the southern most tip of the Mexican peninsula. But there is so much more I want to do!
Being an avid Pinterester, I started searching for fun ways to celebrate the big 3-0 and found that 30 Before 30 lists are quite popular! There are tons of websites, blogs, and lists dedicated to the subject! So I decided since I love making lists and checking things off as I complete them, that this would be the perfect way for me to celebrate the milestone and make me feel like I am a super accomplished 30 year old!
I set a couple of rules for my 30 things before I turn 30 list. I didn't want to put travel items on my list or else that is all it would be; all 30 items would be places I would want to visit and that would be financially impossible for the amount of time I have to complete my list.
By the way, as of today, I have 508 days before I turn 30.
My wonderful husband, Darren, who is being dragged along on this adventure with me, and I usually try to travel somewhere once a year. So I limited myself to one real travel item on my list (My definition of "traveling" is needing to get on a plane to get there). A few of the other rules were I had to do something nice for someone else, I had to learn things, I had to do something I had been putting off, I had to leave the world a better place in some way, and all of the things on my list had to be "do-able" and financially reasonable.
Even though I will be taking this list of 30 items that I need to complete in 508 days extremely seriously, I am not going to beat myself up about not finishing in time. There are a few things on my list that I would obviously like to accomplish by my 30th birthday, but some things can not be rushed, and I think as long as I get started or at least have a game plan I should still feel pretty good about it.
