Thoughts on turning 30

February 26, 2010 at 8:40 pm | Posted in About Me | Leave a comment

Sometime on Thursday, February 18 – was it 9:22am, 10:54am? I can never remember, plus with the time change….whatever, it’s my birthday all day – I turned 30 years old. I entered my 31st year on the planet. I joined what some call “The Dirty 30 Club.” Wait, what?

No, sorry. I may be 30, but I refused to label it as dirty. Nor will I call it “flirty.” Blech. Just 30 is fine with me. I didn’t freak out about it. I don’t feel “officially old” and I see no need to cute-up  the idea of getting older in order to stomach it more easily. Actually, I’m feeling pretty damn content about where I am in life right now.

Last year, I wrote a little post about the things I’d seen and done in my 29 years on Earth, and though I copped to not always feeling like an adult, I was feeling secure in that. One year later, I still don’t always feel like an adult. And what I’ve realized is that I may never really feel like one. I may never feel that maternal urge to bring forth a child. I may never own a house. I may never be completely debt free (damn you, college loans!). And I am 100% okay with that. Because the things I do have – great friends and family, an awesome job, a perfect-for-me husband, and a life of adventure – are the only things I need.

In the last year, I went from freelancing on the side of my day-job to freelancing full-time to being fully employed as a travel writer and editor at a great website where I get to work with fantastic, passionate people. I visited (and fell madly in love with) Iceland, and went to Denver (twice), San Antonio and Austin, Louisville and Lexington, Washington DC,  Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Hawaii, and South Africa.

I spent time with family, attended two kick ass weddings, went ziplining (twice), rode a horse on the beach, saw two active volcanoes, was mugged at knifepoint, snorkeled for the first time, saw the bats of Austin, swam with sharks (kind of), went dogsledding, rode an Icelandic horse, added a fourth continent to my tally, flew a plane, visited a coffee plantation, swam with dolphins (also twice), rang in my birthday in New Orleans, and generally had fantastic time.

Once you turn 30, you sometimes need to stop and rest while you drink your Hurricane.

So, what’s next? Well, I’ll be working on some exciting projects at BootsnAll, traveling to Colombia, New York and Prague, plus other locations to be determined, committing to finally and for good getting and staying healthy with good eating and consistent exercise, and working on accomplishing more goals on my life list.

I think 30 is going to be a really good year.