Thursday, June 21, 2012

Turning 27

Tuesday was my 27th birthday. I'm gonna be real with you, earlier this year when Brett turned 29 I had a mid 20s crisis. I (insensitively) overreacted when Brett embarked upon the last year of his 20's and started to fret over my dwindling 20's. I'm not worried about getting older, having grey hair, getting wrinkles, or whatever else people get worried about. The bottom line is that I'm freaked out that my time is going to end sooner than I'm ready for it to. I know that there is a spiritual journey (for me at least) in accepting this, but in the mean time... you know, before I have the workings of the universe figured out, I've decided to make a list: 30 things to do before I'm 30. Tanya from Dans Le Townhouse did a 30 before 30 list last week, for her 28th birthday, and It inspired me. 

1. Make working for myself, work. 
2. Visit 5 states that I've never visited, including Alaska. 
3. Teach a photography class.
4. Lay a tile floor.  
5. Start reading novels to Jude and Lennon
6. Buy a Vespa 
7. Attend an auction ... and bid on something! (ebay doesn't count)
8. Grow 50% of what my family eats
9. Clad a ceiling
10. Learn how to drive a tractor
11. Catch, kill, cook, and eat a lobster. 
12. Go camping (real camping)
13. Expand my collection of rotary telephones
14. Take my kids to South Dakota to visit their great great grandparents
15. Take a more public stand against sexism
16. Find a Mentor
17. Be a Mentor 
18. Write more letters
19. Start saving money, ACTUALLY saving money
20. Get my Etsy store off the ground
21. Complete a 4x5 photography project
22. Learn how to use the grill
23. Reupholster something
24. Face my fear of the dark and be able to stay up later than my husband
25. Get another tattoo 
26. Take a family road trip to a destination we've never been 
27. Evolve as an artist 
28. Take time to grow as a person
29. Learn to consider every moment of my day as irreplaceable and valuable
30. Meditate more


Some are more tangible than others, and some are more serious, but they're all really important to me. I am hoping to make progress on all 30 of these list items, but I am also very open to accepting life as it comes and evolving through the challenges and allowances that life gives me. I'll let you know in three years where I'm at ;)

And for the formality of it all, here I am ... on my 27th birthday, attempting to look authentic.

6 comments:

  1. Great list. Does this mean I have to do 60 things before I turn 60 in October? Please say no. I wonder if there are 60 Oreos in a box?

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    1. lol! Brenda, you crack me up ... I have a feeling you've always kept a mental list ;)

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  2. Happy Birthday! I hope you had a lovely day!
    That's a great list, 4X5 cameras are amazing, I used to use them in college when I did photography and I'm hoping to learn how to drive a tractor too! And about the dark-thingie.. I went to live alone at our house in the forest ( no electricity, no water, no toilet..) for 6 months a few years ago, the closest neighbor live about a mile away, that surely made me un-afraid of the dark! It's doable; just put your mind to it! :)

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    1. wow, Anna! Your story about living alone in the woods is SO inspiring! I would love to do something like that, but I would definitely have some anxiety about the dark, at least at first!

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    2. Going up there for 4 weeks now and will most likely post tons of pictures of it! :) Although, we're in between cameras so it'll be instagram shots. Oh, I can't wait!
      Happy 4th of July!

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  3. Shawna VsquiggleHsquigglesquiggleJune 29, 2012 at 8:39 AM

    Happy (belated) Birthday!! Hope you accomplish all the things on your list :-)
    I'm a huge fan of #6. I've wanted one for awhile now, but it seemed more practical in Portland. I fear I'll get run over by an oversized truck in Montana.

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