Thirty Things To Do Before I'm Thirty

Yesterday I entered my thirtieth year, and I celebrated my champagne birthday (I turned 29 on the twenty-ninth). After a day in St. Jacobs with my sister and her housemate, and before I turned in for the night, I spent some time pondering what I could write on my blog about my birthday or about the dreaded event to follow next year, when I will officially enter my thirties. Is turning thirty so bad? My theory is it doesn't have to be, provided you feel you have done everything in your twenties that you wanted to do. Some one who turns thirty, married with one kid and another on the way, established in a career, proud owner of their second home, may feel less panicked about this milestone than someone who is single, thinking about going back to school in order to get a career, and planning to move out of their parent's house. So I came up with the idea of writing a list of things I want to do in the next three hundred and sixty-four days, like a bucket list, except I am not planning on dying anytime soon. I don't foresee having two kids and a husband in that span of time, but there are some things that would be nice to do before I'm thirty.

• Successfully run for two kilometres without stopping. Take up running on a regular basis.
• Travel to a foreign country.
• Try downhill skiing for the first time.
• Take a pottery class.
• Be accepted into a program of study and/or start said program of study.
• Find a volunteer job.
• Become involved at the Meeting House.
• Intentionally develop a more active social life.
• Join a book club.
• Find a new place with a room-mate.
• Practice the spiritual disciplines and develop the fruit of the Spirit.
• Befriend a friendless person.
• Be able to write "in a relationship" on Facebook, truthfully.
• Go down the escarpment stairs and up again more than once.
• Develop a daily prayer life, and foster a close relationship with Christ.
• Become a full-fledged optimist.
• Go on a road trip.
• Lose the belly.
• Learn how to bake lemon meringue pie and cook a whole chicken.
• Write in a journal every week.
• Master basic sewing tasks.
• Learn how to barbecue.
• Go on an overnight canoe trip.
• Successfully perform ten consecutive push-ups.
• Eat a lobster.
• Play a tennis game.
• Take up roller-blading.
• Write my one-hundredth blog post.
• Buy a digital camera and learn to use it.
• Make a valiant attempt to keep a clean and tidy living space at all times.