**Edited 3/28/21. Originally written goals that have since been changed are in blue. Some changed due to COVID and some no longer suited my overall goals or dropped on my priority list while other things rose up.

My birthday recently passed and if you’ve been following for over a year, you know that I make a yearly list of things to accomplish during that new age (previous ones here and here). This year should be 27 things to do while I’m 27. However, I didn’t do so great on crossing things off last year’s list. This go ‘round, I’m making it a three-year endeavor and present to you….

30 Things To Do Before I’m 30…(But Also, How Is 30 That Close? I Swear I Graduated From High School Maybe A Year Ago)

1. Read 40 books
2. ✔️ Graduate from college with my BS
3. ✔️ Pay off my student loans
4. ✔️ Successfully grow a pumpkin
5. Learn how to skate backwards
6. Learn a language (Spanish, ASL, Greek)
7. Make a wood puzzle or build a piece of furniture
8. ✔️ Try sushi / ✔️ Get a job working with children
9. ✔️ Get a new piercing / Learn a song on the piano
10. Make a set of earrings / Go to a vegan food fair
11. Write a children’s book
12. Go camping / in Big Sur
13. Visit a state I haven’t been to
14. Go to a National Park I haven’t been to
15. ✔️ Finish my seasonal cross stitches
16. Complete a 5,000+ piece jigsaw puzzle
17. ✔️ See a whale tail (flukes) / Go vegetarian***
18. Hike a mountain over 10,000ft
19. Go golfing
20. Go horseback riding / Go to a bluegrass festival
21. Go to a hot air balloon festival
22. ✔️ Buy a Subaru new car / Watch a game in an MLB stadium I haven’t been to
23. ✔️ Get a passport / Visit another country
24. Move out (to Colorado 🤞🏼) / Go to Nashville
25. Go backpacking / Go to a football game (NFL or D1)
26. Finish typing up my master bird watching list / Get an AA in Natural Science / Be more sustainable and natural
27. Do gymnastics again
28. Make sourdough bread / Make cheese
29. Have a crossword puzzle published by the NYT / Learn how to do something artistic (watercolor, drawing, makeup)
30. Get yoga certified / Take a dance class

***A Note on Going Vegetarian:

I was watching Jane, the documentary about Jane Goodall’s life with the chimps of Gombe, the other day and I had this thought come into my head that I need to go vegetarian. I’ve had that thought pop in many times before, but it’s not a thought that I want to be there. I love meat, especially ham, shrimp, and the occasional beef, but I feel that changes will be in order…eventually.

To be clear, it’s not that I’m against meat consumption or that I believe it’s terrible for a human’s health. What I have a hard time with is mass producing animals, the amount of meat we consume, and the disconnection we have from it. The other day at work, I walked out to the dumpster and saw several pieces of raw chicken thrown away that had probably gone bad. Too often meat is discarded without any regard or respect for the animal life that was taken only to end up wasted. I personally don’t want to feel like my importance is greater than that of another animal’s. I often see things from a biological perspective, and, although humans do have advantages in the animal kingdom, I want to be mindful of the fact that I’m still an animal myself and am part of this earth. I know not everyone would agree with that and I get it.

I really don’t love having these thoughts because I want to be indifferent and not care. It’s not enjoyable being uncomfortable with how I live my life and feeling like I could do a better job. It’s easy to justify our human decisions, look the other way, and convince ourselves that one person making changes won’t make that much of a difference. Perhaps it won’t. But I think the thing is, I don’t want to go on not caring. I know it won’t be an easy feat to accomplish and, if I’m being honest, I’m terrified of having a strong pull to give up more than just meat. Feeling like I need to give up a greater amount of animal products is genuinely one of the reasons I’ve been scared to fully immerse myself in yoga. I’m afraid that meditative, be-kind-to-yourself-and-all-creatures, fuel-your-body-properly mentality is going to get in the way of me and my dairy. Myself and my PMS might go into a tizzy if that happens. I’m a hardcore hormonal carbs and cheese eater. My goal, though, is to do a better job of obeying the prompting, whether or not it’s easy, and that’s what this feels like a call to do.

“One farmer says to me, ‘You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;’ and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.”

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden