I turned 29 last Monday. My second realisation of the day (the first being that I’d booked leave so I didn’t have to go to work) was that it was now only a year until my 30^th birthday. This stopped me short, momentarily, because if you’d asked me when I was twenty what I thought my life would be like by the time I was thirty, this was not exactly what I had in mind. I expected I would be married with a couple of kids, settled into a career which I loved and probably either owning the place I lived (at least in part) or even living in a different country.

No, don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret where I am in my life or the decisions that brought me here. My life may not have gone as expected but it has been good so far. I have done some things that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d had the responsibility of kids, a house and a husband (i.e. quitting a job with nothing lined up, or funding myself through a Masters).

But realising that at least some of what I had imagined for 30-year-old me wasn’t going to come true (although, I guess, theoretically I do still have time to get married by my 30^th birthday if there are any offers 😉) I decided I could be proactive. There are many things that I want to do that I haven’t got around to doing yet, so I am drafting a list of 30 things I want to have done by my 30^th birthday (or soon after, as one of them is finishing my Masters and my dissertation due date is about two weeks after my birthday).

I will take photos when I accomplish each item and write a short post about each. I’m giving myself about a month to finalise the list, and there are a couple of gaps so if you have suggestions, please let me know! You can comment below, tweet me or post on my Facebook page – everything is called mayibethemoon… Also, let me know if you have ever tried a similar challenge, and how you got on!

I’ve already ticked one thing off on the list, but I think I will leave that for another post…