It seems perhaps unnecessary to state that I've been thinking about keeping up a blog, but it sets the stage as well as any other opening line. When I was a teenager, I had an Open Diary, followed by a Xanga. I actually updated them and made friends...I have one friend from each on my facebook friend list, and amazingly enough we still have things in common as grown women. But as an adult, all my great intentions about keeping up a blog seem to go by the wayside because I have a total and complete inability to see anything through to completion now. I could blame it on having kids or having a job, but in reality, I think I'm just lazy and not properly motivated and it's something I'm eager to change.
To add to this intention, it's November 2012 and I am turning 30 in 2 months. It's not that 30 is OLD...it's just that I always thought I'd have my life put together by this point. And by together, I mean married with kids and a house. So far I've got the kids in that checklist and no immediate plans to remedy either of the missing 2 items.
So with these thoughts floating around in my head...how I want to accomplish something, how I'm turning 30, an how much I used to enjoy blogging...I stumbled upon a book called "The Next Thing on My List" by Jill Smolinski. Four pages in, I learned that it's about a woman who was in a car accident and her passenger died. If you know anything about me, you would know that I nearly returned this book to the library for fear of hysterically crying my way through the rest of it. But I pushed through my own horrible car accident memories and finished a rather simple, but potentially life changing book about a woman finishing off a list of things that her passenger had wanted to complete by her 25th birthday. It could have been just another book in a long line of books that I've read, but I decided to do something more about it. I sat down and wrote a list.
At this time, I have 20 things on my list, some of which are quite time consuming, and some that are easily related. (I see myself completing the 30 day shred, weighing 144 pounds, and modeling a bikini at swim lessons...right?) In retrospect, this list would be so much cooler if I had 30 things to do during my 30s, but the point of this list is to leave off anything too cutesy, too symbolic, and too meaningless. For example, in the book the author of the list wants to kiss a stranger. Frankly, I like kissing, but I won't regret never kissing a stranger. And I think my boyfriend will enjoy the exclusion of that one as well. When writing the list, I asked myself, "Is this something you will be proud of one day? Is there something you would regret not doing?" I've never been to Disney World, but I'm nearly 30 and I am perfectly okay with turning 40 without seeing Mickey Mouse up close and personal. Would it be fun? Sure! Is it something I'll regret not doing? No.
I started this list with a lifetime goal, but my boyfriend encouraged me to set a deadline on it. I can appreciate that sentiment as I would otherwise allow things to linger far longer than necessary. However, as a single mom with 2 kids living in an overpriced apartment, there will have to be a certain order to the goals that require significant amounts of time and money. My first financial priority is buying a house, hands down!
So on to crossing over into 30...and crossing things off my list!
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