Dirty 30....30 things to do in my 30's

Today is my 30th birthday and instead of worrying about getting older I have decided to look to the future as an adventure and have made a list:

30 things to do in my 30’s

1.       Try to make dirty dozen design team

2.       Design for Kraftin Kimmie Stamps/Taylored expressions/there she goes/The Greeting Farm

3.       Get to goal weight

4.       Learn healthy habits to stay at goal weight

5.       Try one daring/unusual/out of the box thing a month

6.       Try to do as many stamp challenges as possible

7.       Keep a 3.5 GPA or higher through graduation

8.       Work on my French and try to be fluent

9.       Learn sign language

10.   Complete wedding/Disneyland/Paris/cruise scrapbooks

11.   Work on settling my past and to move forward

12.   Start a family

13.   Travel to Europe as many times as I can

14.   Travel to New York

15.   Complete my PhD in History

16.   Buy a house

17.   Work on being a better friend

18.   Take cooking lessons

19.   Become a teacher

20.   Make decisions my children can look up to (when I have them)

21.   Rescue more dogs

22.   Volunteer more

23.   Become more outgoing

24.   Be a better wife

25.   Try to show my family how much they mean to me in both actions and words

26.   Try to use more of what I already have instead of adding to the clutter

27.   View each day as a gift and try to make the most of ever moment

28.   Don’t worry about the number of each birthday but look forward to the memories you are making

29.   Read more and remember to take moments for myself

30.   Don’t deny yourself the happiness and joys of life for things that won’t matter in the long run!

The last image is a poem that my high school economics teacher handed out on the last day of school of our senior year.  I have looked at this poem many times over the last 12 years and it still resonates with me!  It is called comes the dawn.

Here is the full text:

Comes The Dawn

Author: Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security,
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads on today,
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans,
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure...
That you really are strong,
And you really do have worth.
And you learn and learn...
With every goodbye you learn.