30 Before 30 – What I’ve Done
If you’ve never heard of a 30 before 30 list (or 40 before 40, or bucket list, etc), it’s a list of things that you’d like to try before you turn a certain age. I’ve been working on a 30 before 30 list for the last 5 years or so, and since my 29th birthday is rapidly approaching, I thought I’d do a status update/reality check on what I’ve been able to accomplish!
What I’ve Done:
1. Skydive (I did this in Abel Tasman, New Zealand in Jan 2012)
2. Wine tasting in California…initially done October 2012, but many, many times since then as well!
3. Visit New Zealand with my brother & sister. Our dad’s parents moved there after retirement, and my grandfather funded my first trip over there in 2008. I fell so in love with NZ I’ve been back 4 times since then, and really, really wanted to share it with my brother and sister. We visited in Dec of 2011 for almost four whole weeks, touring around in a big green Jucy campervan…it was the experience of a lifetime.
4. Learn to snowboard or ski (I did this in early 2011). I hate winter, but in 2011 I resolved to try to love it. I asked Nick to teach me how to ski, and he kindly and very patiently obliged. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert skiier, but I did love it, especially on powder days when you feel like you can’t possibly make a mistake!
5. Shoot a gun. Done, with the help of my friend chenry (.22 and range membership), Nov 5 2011 in Stittsville.
6. Bungee Jump. Did this in May of 2010 off the Kawarau Bridge just outside Queenstown NZ.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JBqR2CuCS4&w=420&h=315]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZBurdXKVN4&w=420&h=315]
7. Visit Paris. Spent New Year’s Eve 2009/2010 watching the light show at the Eiffel Tower and drinking terrible cheap champagne from the bottle. It was amazing.
8. Visit London. On the same trip as Paris, I spent a few days in London. I’d been before on a high school trip, and don’t especially love it. Terrible food!
9. Visit Las Vegas. I was helped with this one by work — shortly after I made my 30 before 30 list, they changed the location of an annual conference I was going to, from San Francisco to Vegas. I’ve now been at least four times and always have a blast – it’s basically like Disneyland for adults!
10. Visit somewhere unlikely. What I meant by this one was that I wanted to travel somewhere that I wouldn’t have expected I would travel to — somewhere I wouldn’t think of when I thought of my top ten destinations. Work helped with this one too – in January of 2010, they sent me to Tokyo for ten days. Amazing food in Tokyo, and beautiful sights, along with top-notch service whereever I went. I would absolutely go back, this time with Nick!
11. Fly First Class. It’s not that I can’t afford to fly first class, but that I don’t want to spend the money on it! Ha ha ha…..I really can’t afford it. It’s often at least 3x the price of an economy ticket, and since I’m able-bodied and young, I just bite it and suffer in relative comfort (earplugs, noise-cancelling headphones, and an eyemask make a big difference!). Still, I added this to my list, because it was an experience that I wanted to have, and achieved it sooner than I expected – on the flight over to Tokyo from #10, I mysteriously got upgraded by some kind of Air Canada magic (no, work did not pay for it – my economy ticket was about $700 round trip, and I later checked, first class one way was $14,000!) and ended up in the swankiest of first class there is! Let me just say…it was absolutely amazing (lay-flat pod, personal tv, anything you could possibly want including ice cream, full-sized chocolate bars, bottles of wine etc), but not worth $14,000.
12. Get a tattoo. Done in September of 2011. It’s a New Zealand themed tattoo (my first visit to NZ in 2008 set my life on a new path) on my back.
13. Visit Vancouver. Since I was a little kid, I’ve loved what I knew about Vancouver and always wanted to visit (or maybe even move there). In April of 2012, Nick and I were lucky enough to be able to visit our friends who were living there at the time, via a trip to Seattle for a wedding. Sure enough, it was breathtakingly beautiful, with excellent sushi, just as I’d been promised.
And that’s what I’ve completed so far, with one year to go! I definitely will not complete the whole list, but in sacrificing some of the list items, I’ve accomplished many other very cool things (like getting married, and moving to California!).