30b430 Reflections: The Eleven before Whenever

I'm good with to-do lists.

I love to-do lists. I love making lists of what I want and need to get done minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and sometimes even decades ahead of time.

This brings me to reflect on my 30 Before 30.

I've been 31 for almost 3 months and I've been thinking about how motivated I was while I worked on the good 'ole 30 Before 30 list. It was challenging, fun, and completing items on the list changed my life for the better:

1. Complete an indoor triathlon. 2/12/12
2. Complete an outdoor triathlon. 6/2/12
3. Swim across West Twin Lake and Rose Lake (or Pine Lake). 7/14/12 and 6/26/12 
4. Bike the Kal-Haven Trail.7/30/12

8. Visit my grandparents in California.
9. Pop a champagne cork with no fear.
10. Make leche flan (it's Filipino, it's amazing, and I'm makin' it).
12. Revised 5/1/12 because I remembered that I'm supposed to graduate in December and my Master's degree is really important to me!!! Get my Master's degree
14. Pay off at least 50% of my remaining undergraduate credit card debt.
17. Pick berries and bake something with them. 8/24/12 
18. Write at least one chapter of the novel that I write in my mind while I'm walking the dogs.
19. Thank my mom for everything she's done for me.

21. Get chosen for one more summer fellowship in another country where I am able to work with youth.
23. Get to 200 blog posts.
24. Revised 5/1/12 Make some decisions about my career and/or PhD prospects. 
25. Attend roller derby training so I can learn the moves.
26. Learn how to flip turn when I'm swimming laps. 4/19/12
27. Take a real personal day. 6/8/12
29. Go horseback riding.8/8/12
30. Poach an egg perfectly.

I didn't finish 12 of the items on the list, mostly due to my interests changing, lack of funds, lack of patience, fear, and indecision:

5. Play the piano in front of people: Fear
6. Visit my family in the Philippines (or at least have tickets booked by my 30th birthday): Lack of Funds
7. Have a conversation with a dear Senegalese friend in French or Wolof (preferably Wolof): Lack of Patience

11. Jar or can veggies, pickles, sauce... something: Lack of Patience

12. Submit some of my academic writing and then, maybe, you know... get it published: Fear, Indecision

13. Travel out of the country with Nate: Lack of Funds

15. Sing karaoke by myself in Kalamazoo in front of all of my friends: Fear
16. Eat clean for one month: Lack of Patience

20. Go further into the UP than the Mystery Spot tourist trap and jump into Lake Superior: Lack of Funds

22. Go on a police ride along: Interests Changing

24. Apply for PhD programs: Indecision

28. Learn how to drive a stick: Fear

So here is my new list: The Eleven Before Whenever List

1. Do something musical in front of people I know, whether it's playing the piano or singing-- just get over the childhood fear and do it.

The Hubs got me Beck's Song Reader (and a fishing pole) for my birthday, so I'll start with that.  I'm hoping to learn and record a diddy and just post it here. Someday. When the fear subsides. 

2. Travel, travel, travel: Maybe that means to the Philippines, maybe that means out of the country with Nate, maybe that means to Michigan's UP... I just want to travel and eat food as much and see as many new things as possible.

I went to NYC for work, which is a fun part of the job, but I want to go to places of my choosing as well. 

3. Learn conversational French or Wolof: Learning a language is SO FRUSTRATING for me. I'm not a natural language-picker-upper. I'm going to continue trying to be patient with this.

4. Keep on keepin' on with trying to be healthy: Participate in the 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge, make garden boxes for the backyard and then jar or can something that we grow, work on loving myself at any size, find my happy weight (I feel thisclose), keep focusing on eating foods that aren't too processed, aim to do Swim to Moon one of these summers, compete in a half-ironman relay (swimming), lift weights and build my strength, not work too much, spend quality time with the Hubs... basically do everything that makes me feel awesome and nothing that makes me feel like crap physically OR emotionally.

[via]

5. Learn how to drive a damn stick: I just... I just... want to know.

6. Stop letting the prospect of a PhD loom over me: In an earlier post, I said I'd be posting curriculum here, but this isn't the space for it. I want to focus on establishing a website to share my research and teacher resources for free. I want to work on establishing my web presence as a curriculum person. I'd love to pick up some more curriculum consulting gigs too-- I got one this summer and it was so fun. The PhD Possibility will always be there.

But fer reals, this would be cool. [via]

7. I want to build something with the Hubs-- specifically, some kind of floor to ceiling bookshelf contraption for my office. I'm going to work over the next year to remodel my office. I will be posting more about it later. There is too much to say about the horror that is my office.

8. Continue to budget, pay off the rest of my debt outside of the big : Shame, shame... I just started budgeting in January for the first time in my life. I loving it and I even love a small percentage of Dave Ramsey's advice, despite the fact that we would not get along in real (or imaginary) life.

9. I'm working on a RIDIC clothing purge thanks to self-reflection, disgust in my clothing hoarding tendencies, Pinterest, and "Building a Grown-Up Wardrobe" ala the fantastic blog Aj Wears Clothes. It will be further described in a series of soul-baring posts. Let's just say that I don't wanna be a hoarder. I really don't.

[via]

10. Write, write, write: I won a micro-fiction writing contest around the concept for my novel. Hearing Steve Luxenberg, the author of the haunting Annie's Ghosts, read my work aloud in front of a few hundred people, hearing said people laugh where I hoped they would laugh, and having Mr. Luxenberg compliment my story were highlights of 2014. This is probably a project that will take me another five to ten years to complete-- in addition to the ten years I've already sat on this story and contemplated how I'm going to write it. That's some long term stuff.

11. Work on being more self-assured, more confident, and less hesitant:

It's time to read Lean In. And to stop apologizing for things that don't need an apology. 

There it is. My itch to write a list has been scratched. Now I must attempt to have the patience to work on completing these... whenever.