Things to do before I’m 30

I’m 23.  7 years away from entering my 30′s.  I’m not scared of 30, but it does feel like a milestone age.  While I am a grown up, I feel like your twenties are still your time to make mistakes, learn, grow and become your adult self while you are between your post-college years and kids.  I want to set myself up for some awesome 30′s, 40′s, 50′s and beyond, developing good habits, experience things that will make me a more worldly person and making sound investments.

I started my list of things to do before I turn 30 a month or so ago and I figure we better start checking them off now since some of them are pretty lofty.

Note:  This list is subject to change and develop.  I will be adding to it and crossing things off.  But the goal is to never take anything off the list and to try to achieve as many of these as I can.

• Find time to enjoy books again. I love reading.  But I’m finding as I get older and the responsibilities pile on it has become less of a priority.  I miss being able to really sit down and get lost in a book.  I would love to get back in the habit of spending free time with my nose in a book.
• Work out regularly. I haven’t had a regular workout schedule since I was running cross-country in high school.  Sure, I did the Bridal Bootcamp DVD for a few months before the wedding, but I hardly feel like that counts.  I would like to get in the habit of working out regularly.  I think part of that will come when I find an activity that I really enjoy.  Maybe it’s Yoga or Pilates or running again.  I’m not sure, but I need to find it before I turn 30.
• Go on a REAL honeymoon. Right after the wedding Jared wanted to get back to work and frankly we couldn’t afford the kind of honeymoon we really wanted to take.  We toyed around with a few ideas just to go somewhere.  But ultimately we couldn’t get motivated enough about them to spend the money.  We decided to wait until we could afford the trip of our dreams.  I have started putting away a chunk of each paycheck to pay for that trip.
• Own a home. We’re working on it.  Here is hoping I can cross this off the list soon.  That’s a big one we can check off.  Welcome to 86 Maple.
  
• Host a holiday. Before I’m 30 and when we own a home of our own I would love to host a Thanksgiving or Christmas.  I would love to try to cook a turkey and come up with a beautiful place setting and bring people together in our home.  Of course I need to cross owning a home off the list first.
• Come up with a really unique idea. Will clarify in a separate post.
• Have a real career I can see myself sticking with and loving for years. Right now I’m working a part-time job that is OK, but I don’t see becoming a career.  By the time we have kids I would love to be settled into a career.

• Visit Niagara Falls.  Believe it or not, I’ve never seen Niagara Falls.  Jared took me an on amazing belated anniversary trip over a long labor day weekend.
• Do something charitable every year. We already do Toys for Tots every holiday, so my goal is just to keep this up.

• Have a beautiful (non-wedding) photo taken of Jared and me. I know this may seem silly, but we really don’t have a ton of photos of the two of us outside the wedding.  We don’t have a lot opportunity to be photographed at all.  Is it narcissistic that I would like some lovely photos of us while we’re young for our children and grandchildren to look at someday?  We have a ton of wedding photos, but I would love some non-wedding day photos for our album.  We snuck in some photos with my old college roommate Christa Kimble in the summer of 2010.  See more here.
• Go to Europe. Perhaps we can combine this with the honeymoon… we’ll see.
• Plant a garden.   Summer 2011 we checked this one off!  And will probably continue to for summers to come.  We learned so much about our little garden and hopefully it will get bigger and better every summer.
• Throw myself a birthday party. I might save this one for the last second and throw myself a 30th birthday party.  I haven’t really had a birthday party since I was about 9.  Why not throw yourself a beautiful party?

• Keep a Diary.  This one is in process.  On January 29th, 2012 I started a 5 years diary.  On January 29th, 2017 I’ll be able to officially cross this one off the list a few months before I turn 30.  I think it will be a great way to chronicle the last half of my 20′s.
• Learn something new every year.  I love to learn new things.  Any I never want to stop.  24 – Rose Gardening