Thursday, July 9, 2020

30 Before/After 30

Turning thirty feels like one of those events that happens to other people. It is never something that I gave much thought or stressed over, until recent weeks. I was planning to celebrate the occasion with a Eurotrip with my husband and a couple friends, but obviously we have had to change plans due to the current situation. I wanted to find a way to meaningfully mark the occasion, with an eye towards the future rather than dwelling on all the things that have passed me by.

While flipping through a recent Real Simple, I came across an amazing idea: record 30 things you did before 30, as well as writing down 30 things you'd like to accomplish after 30. You are probably sensing a theme here - I love a good list. So I tried my hand at coming up with these lists. The first half was surprisingly easy and left me feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I have been truly fortunate to experience the things I've experienced, particularly in regards to travel. Of course the list only includes positive things, much like an Instagram highlight reel, but I would much rather reflect on the positives than the negatives.

The second half was more difficult, as I struggled between including concrete, specific goals, or more abstract ones. I decided upon a mixture. The list is decidedly skewed towards travel, but that just serves of a reminder of its importance in my life. Some are contingent upon others, but I treated the creation of the list as more of an exercise in positive thinking rather than a list of performance goals. I've always struggled with dwelling too much on the past and not looking forward, so this was helpful in exercising those muscles. I found the whole experience to be useful in centering myself in the midst of drastic changes in my life. I highly recommend it for those of you about to turn thirty, or reaching another important milestone in your life.

(I removed some cities and names to preserve a modicum of anonymity)

30 Before 30
1. Traveled to Scotland (June 2004)
2. Got my driver’s license (July 2006)
3. Graduated high school (June 2008)
4. Euro trip w/ high school (June 2008)
5. Graduated college (May 2012)
6. Traveled to the Bahamas (May 2012)
7. Moved to South Carolina (August 2012)
8. Rented my first apartment (August 2012)
9. Traveled to England again (March 2013)
10. Adopted cat #1 (October 2013)
11. Traveled to England yet again (March 2014)
12. Received my MA degree (May 2014)
13. Adopted cat #2 (July 2015)
14. Moved to new town (July 2015)
15. Traveled to Oxford for husband (multiple times 2015-2017)
16. Traveled to Marrakech (March 2016)
17. Studied abroad in London (May 2016)
18. Traveled to Belgium (August 2016)
19. Received my MS degree (May 2017)
20. Traveled to Italy (May 2017)
21. Started my first professional job (June 2017)
22. Moved to new city (June 2017)
23. Got engaged (December 2017)
24. Traveled west of the Mississippi for the first time; Austin, TX (March 2018)
25. Traveled to Albuquerque (November 2018)
26. Got married (April 2019)
27. Moved to current city (April 2019)
28. Started a new job (April 2019)
29. Started learning photography (August 2019)
30. Photographed the Cotswolds (February 2020)

30 After 30
1. Buy a house
2. Start a rose garden
3. Get chickens
4. Improve my watercoloring
5. Improve my photography
6. Improve my French
7. Improve my German
8. Pay off student loan debt
9. Learn to cook signature dishes
10. Grow my own vegetables
11. Buy a vintage Land Rover
12. Go back to Morocco
13. Go back to Italy
14. Go back to Germany
15. Go back to Belgium
16. Go back to Scotland
17. Visit England at least once every two years
18. Take husband to France
19. Travel to the Netherlands
20. Travel to Finland
21. Travel to India
22. Travel to Nepal
23. Travel to Portugal
24. Travel to Spain
25. Travel to Egypt
26. Travel to the Middle East
27. Travel around the US
28. Go on a ski trip
29. Have children!
30. Have grandchildren!