Now That I’m 30
I’m 30. Knowing that I had my big birthday coming up, I spent a bit of time thinking about it over the summer. What does 30 mean? How do I feel about it? Have I accomplished what I’d hoped to accomplish by 30? Was I going to have a crisis about being 30? How was I going to define my entrance into my 30’s?
When I turned 25, I had just graduated with my master’s degree in special education. I had a bit of a crisis over it. For the first time in a very long time, I wasn’t going to be a student. I didn’t have classes. I wasn’t going to be graded. I didn’t have teachers. In order to combat my feelings of angst, I decided to take a leadership class at my church. I guess I replaced one type of school with another. I was also a teacher, I guess I had found my comfort zone. 
This summer as I approached 30, I thought of closing down this blog and starting up a now-that-I’m-30 blog. I figured I would set some goals for myself, report several times a week, and distract myself until I was 31. Then, instead of having a crisis, I would do those things I had long put off or found an excuse not to do. Instead of doing that, I just didn’t. I found things to busy myself, and I finally made a tangible goal for myself by eliminating sugar from my diet from now until Thanksgiving.
Just when I was feeling justified in my complacency, I got an email. A fabulous friend of mine had commented on my sugar post. This is a friend who was in my wedding (and I was in hers 22 weeks pregnant with K), a friend who I think about quite often, a friend I admire greatly, and a friend I had not talked to in over a year. I was so excited to read a comment from her. I was even more excited to see she had a blog. It struck me as a little funny that her blog is thirty things she wants to accomplish before she’s thirty. Hmmm… Maybe I’m not feeling so great about my complacency all of a sudden.
So, Friends, I bet you can guess what will be coming in the next few days and weeks. A list. I am not nearly as ambitious as my friend, so I will not be creating the blog “30 Things I Did While 30.” I am thinking I will be setting monthly goals for myself. So far, I have this: October– Procrastinate (check) November– Eliminate sugar and refined carbohydrates from diet (in progress). I will keep you updated as the list continues to grow.
I’d like to see a post about 30 things you’ve accomplished in the past 30 years.
Turning 29 was traumatic for me because I knew it signaled the end of a really good era. Yup, it did end, but so far, the 30s have been rich, just in a different way. Had my first child at 31 and second at 34, so obviously that has caused lots of change.
I really want to write a bucket list and start living more intentionally. It’s amazing how much time I waste on evenings and weekends doing housework and laundry. That stuff is not memorable.
Hey I’m 30 in March and I finished my teacher training when I was 25 too! I started doing “quarterly” reviews where I set goals and review what progress I make but so far I’ve only done it twice in almost two years so not very quarterly.