I’m officially 30! Just over a month ago, I turned 30 and while it wasn’t the birthday that I envisioned for 30, I still had a wonderful day surrounded by my absolute favorite people. A few months before my 29th birthday, I created a 30 Before 30 List, challenging myself to do a few things (well, 30 things!) that I’d never done before – all before the big 3-0 hit. Check out how I did then scroll down to get a few thoughts and clarifications on my list!
Key
✔️ Completed
❌ Did not complete
◻️ Halfway / Kind of
- Travel a state I’ve never been to ❌
- Air mattress movie day / night (basically, I wake up in the morning, move from the bed to the air mattress, and only move throughout the day to get food and go to the bathroom!) ✔️
- Send birthday cards ✔️
- Send thank-you cards for the little things (and the big things!) ✔️
- Sleep overnight in the bed of a truck ❌
- Reread and rewatch Harry Potter ◻️
- Watch a drive-in movie ❌
- Kayak ❌
- Eat at Chicken Mary’s and Chicken Annie’s in Pittsburg ✔️
- Atchison day trip ❌
- Take a mother-daughter vacation ◻️
- Eat at Prize Package ❌
- Read one nonfiction book per month ❌
- Visit Marceline, Missouri ✔️
- Reread the Bridgerton series ◻️
- Be debt-free except for my house ✔️
- Take a solo unplugged weekend ❌
- Watch all 58 Disney animated films ❌
- Topeka Ichabod statues ✔️
- Watch the Marvel movies in order, marathon style ❌
- Blog once per month ◻️
- Read a daily devotional ◻️
- Make a blanket fort ❌
- Watch all 21 Pixar films ❌
- Take a long weekend to Herrmann, MO with my honey ???? ◻️
- Wamego Totos ✔️
- Try something new ✔️
- Axe throwing ❌
- Go skinny dipping ❌
- Photo shoot for 30! ✔️
I’m going to call 2020 on quite a few of these that had the ❌ through them. In the middle of a worldwide pandemic, it’s a bit difficult to travel (#1, #17) or go into public places (#10, #12, #28). On the flipside, you would have thought that four months of unemployment + quarantine would have allowed me to read a LOT (#6, #13, #15) and watch all those movies (#18, #20) but I didn’t do those things either! Haha! It is what it is.
The reason I halfway completed a few items or maybe was because I didn’t get all the way through them or 2020 circumstances allowed me not to do it, OR I did something similar but not quite the exact item. I finished half the Bridgerton series (#15), our mother-daughter vacation (#11) got rescheduled to March of 2021 and while I didn’t blog every month (#21), I did have 11 blog posts from 29 to 30, so that averages to almost one per month! I also haven’t read every single day of my daily devotional (#22) but I have read most of them! I plan on rereading Harry Potter (#6) in 2021 and while I didn’t go to Herrmann with my honey (#25), we did take a long weekend getaway together this year throughout many Missouri small towns!
No, I didn’t fully complete the list. Even if you count the “maybes” I still only got halfway through. But it was a fun thing to keep me entertained through 29, which with 2020, was nice to have something that took me “away” a little bit! In addition, it made me a little more aware of some of my preferences. For instance, I realized that I really just don’t have any desire to read nonfiction (#13). Instead, I read 20 books including six from new authors, eight returns to previous books I’ve loved and two new installments from longtime favorite authors. Also, for a few on this list, I chose other things over checking things off a list. No, I didn’t watch the Marvel movies one weekend in September like I planned. But I DID spend an entire day with my parents instead and this is a theme that came up more often than not – the idea of choosing the other thing over the items on my list. Reading other books, watching other TV shows (Derek and I started and finished a new series between 29 & 30!), or you know, just LIVING through a year that saw so much personal change.
Don’t get me wrong – this was so much fun to explore and write down but I found that I gave myself grace, which I think is the most important! Plus it gets me thinking about a 40 Before 40 list……
