The last time 30 sounded old was about 10 years ago – so I don’t feel even mildly “old” or even remotely bummed out that today I entered a new decade. But it is just weird. What’s weirdest, I think, is that I’m no longer in my twenties. I’m now in the decade where the norm is being responsible, law-abiding citizens who regularly fertilize their lawns and attend PTA meetings. Not that I do those things. Well, I feel like I’m fairly responsible, and I do my best to abide by the law, but I don’t have a lawn to fertilize, nor do I have children old enough to be in a school that would actually have a PTA. Nor a country, for that matter.

So maybe what’s weirdest is that my age is actually starting to correspond with what I’m doing in life. With what tiny sampling of “wild oats” I had, they were fully sown by the time I graduated from college (think staying up until 6 a.m. about once a year, and sometimes standing up for entire UT football games. I was crazy, I tell you). I’ve been married for almost five years, with one toddler and another one on the way. 30 is a good age for me, I think.

Way back when, when I first started a blog about two years ago, I listed some random things I’d like to eventually do in my life. And with my birthday here, I mulled over that list and decided to rewrite it. Some of it stayed the same, but some of it didn’t – in rare cases I had actually accomplished the task (i.e., live near the beach), but mostly, my desires and priorities have changed (i.e., work in a bookstore. That just doesn’t appeal to me anymore, for some reason).

So, in no particular order, here are 30 things I’d like to do in my lifetime:

1. Write a book and have it published
2. Learn how to sail (“I sail! I’m a sailor! I sail!” – name that movie)
3. Go scuba diving
4. Take a class on Italian cooking
5. Take a class on French cooking
6. Take a class on pastries/baking
7. Either build a home from scratch or restore an old one – all with Kabob and his mad skillz, of course
8. Have said house be as self-sufficient/green as possible
9. See a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet and/or the NYC Ballet
10. Instill in my children a love for reading
11. Personally teach my children to read
12. Set foot on all seven continents (still four to go…)
13. Memorize a lot more Scripture than I currently know
14. Learn how to garden – I still don’t really know how
15. Go to Alaska
16. Go to Hawaii
17. Taking a writing class from someone cool, like Elizabeth Berg
18. Go to Martha’s Vineyard one more time (our honeymoon spot)
19. Host Christmas at our place of residence for our entire family
20. Ride a hot-air balloon
21. Learn how to can
22. Spend Christmas in NYC
23. Go to New Zealand
24. See U2 live one more time (best concert I’ve ever been to)
25. Take a calligraphy class
26. Spend quality one-on-one time with each of my dearest girlfriends (who now mostly live all over the world)
27. Take a photography class
28. Take swing dance lessons with Kabob
29. Instill in my children a passionate love for those things that God loves
30. Really, truly, honestly be the absolute best wife and mom that God enables me to be

I know that last one is cliché – but it’s true.

What’s on your list?

posted: 07 August 26
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