The Before 30 Bucket List

When I was just about to turn 20, I wrote a list of goals to accomplish over the next ten years. Those goals were mostly stupid, and I think I realized that they weren't all that important to me because I've lost the list. These are the things I remember from the list: I wanted to get a real job, buy a car, buy a house, get married, have a baby, get a tattoo, see John Mayer in concert, see Weezer in concert, go on a road trip through at least five states that didn't include the Dakotas, have my writing published, and go to Europe.

I've done seven of those things. I still plan to do two of them someday, and there are another two that are completely off my radar at this point.

The problem with the list was that most of my goals were not accomplishments. I didn't really have to work to achieve most of those goals, and so, there was no sense of pride in fulfilling them, and there isn't much heartbreaking in not reaching them. At 20, I wasn't looking for fulfillment. I was thinking about reaching the markers of adulthood. I didn't even list graduating college on that list because I took it for granted that I was brilliant and would have no trouble doing so.

I'm six months from turning 30, so I feel like it's time to start evaluating what I REALLY should have accomplished before I turned 30, as well as what I should accomplish before I turn 40. The fourth decade bucket list will be a work in progress over the next six month, but today, I'm ready to share my "Before 30" bucket list with you.

1. Run a 5K.
2. Make my office/scrapbook space perfect.
3. Pass the middle grades Social Studies GACE test.
4. Re-do/refresh our bedroom, including paint.
5. Make curtains for the guestroom.
6. Make curtains for the living room/kitchen.
7. Finish the second book in the Song of Fire and Ice series.
8. Complete our wedding scrapbook (okay, really this is a 5 year anniversary goal, but our anniversary is a month and a half before my 30th birthday, so it is part of this list, too).
9. Reduce my wardrobe to the pieces I actually wear and expand it to include more functional pieces.
10. Finish my home management binder (more about this later).

I'll be sharing my progress on these goals over the next few months. My birthday is September 15, so I'll be updating on or around the 15th of the month until then.