30 Before 30 – Still To Do

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 30 before 30 list and the items I’ve achieved so far. This is part two of that post, where I share the items that I still have to do! There’s pretty much no way I am going to achieve all of these in the next 365 days, but that’s OK – they’ll just be pushed out to my 40 before 40 list!

Savvy readers might notice the two posts don’t add up to 30. Before you make fun of me for being bad at math (which would be a fair assessment!), I’m choosing to keep some goals private.

30 Before 30 – Still To do

1. Learn To Sail  My family on my dad’s side is super into sailing. When I visit my grandmother in New Zealand I love hearing her stories about her sons racing eachother and sailing together. I feel like it’s a part of my family history, and part of my connection with my dad, who died in a car accident when I was 13. I will probably be able to achieve this one since there are a number of sailing schools in the Bay Area.

2. (Re)Learn A Language  My mom’s side of the family is French, and after taking French all through school up to grade 9, and then living in Montreal for a couple of years, I had a decent handle on it, but I’ve pretty much lost it in the years since. I’d like to either re-learn French, or learn a different language, possibly Spanish since we live in California, where 26% of people speak Spanish at home!

3. (Re)Learn a musical instrument  I used to play the following casually: violin (and by proxy it’s fairly easy to pick up cello or viola), piano, flute, and guitar. But since I turned 16 and moved away from home, I haven’t played anything. I’m sure I’ve also lost the ability to read music. I’d like to pick it back up again, especially piano or violin, both of which I just love.

4. Stay In A Presidential Suite  This one goes along with the “fly first class” one – things that aren’t necessarily life goals, but that I thought would be a really cool experience to have. I’ve stayed in some very, very nice hotel rooms, but I’d love to stay for just one night in the creme de la creme of hotel rooms somewhere. Nick and I actually looked into this one last year, but it was so stupidly expensive that we decided against it…for the time being.

5. Take a Course On Wine Tasting  I love wine, and I have a fairly decent palate (I can usually tell what grape something is, and sometimes what region it’s from), but I’d love to learn more! At one winery, we sat next to a man from Australia who could discern the grapes in a blend, and what percentage of the mix they were, with about 80% accuracy – totally amazing.

6. Run A 5k in 30 Minutes or Less  This is a goal that I really just need to suck up and do. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do this one, and I’ve just been making excuses for why I can’t (too busy, asthma, too hot, too cold, etc). If I don’t get this one done before I’m 30, someone can throw raw eggs at me or something.

7. Visit Australia Now we start the travel-related goals…I’ve been to NZ four times and never been to Australia! Just seems like a crime. To be honest, I probably won’t achieve this one, despite likely visiting NZ again next year. As long as my grandmother is still around, I’m going to prioritize seeing her, and visiting a part of the world that’s so close to her just seems like a waste of time that could be spent with her instead.

8. Visit Hawaii  Used to seem so unattainable before we moved to California…but now it’s only a 5 hour flight, and tickets often go on sale for $200!

9. New England Road Trip And on the flip side, this one used to seem so attainable, before we moved to California and it became a very expensive plane trip away! I used to think I could just drive down from Ottawa…man, life surprises you sometimes.

10. Visit Every Continent (except Antarctica) I have Africa and South America left. Unless something crazy happens, I doubt I’ll visit either next year. I also feel like I should visit mainland Asia to fully check this one off, since my Asia checkmark was via Japan.