Feel free to send gifts of flowers, cheese, and adventures my way. After all, I turn 30 this month and isn’t that supposed to be a big deal? Doesn’t that mean I’m, like, a big kid now? (I see you snickering over the short jokes. Bite me.) So maybe I’m not the most adult adult but I’ve been thinking back over the last 30 years and have come up with a list of some accomplishments that make me pretty proud:
- Gone skydiving
- Lived all over the country
- Run a marathon
- Experienced both sides of a broken heart
- Found a cause I believe in
- Gone SCUBA diving
- Watched the ball drop in Times Square
- Graduated from college in the top of my class
- Gotten a tattoo
- Endured disease and death
- Become vegetarian (11+ years now)
- Witnessed incredible celebrations and traditions
- Raised a lovable wee pup
- Skied down double black diamonds
- Wandered around Europe
- Made mistakes
- Been published in journals, magazines, and blogs
- Competently learned to drive stick shift and parallel park (in San Francisco, no less!)
- Found my passion and created a business and career out of it
Not too shabby, methinks. Of course there is so much more I’m itching to do:
- See the Aurora Borealis
- Learn Italian, relearn Spanish
- Bake cookies from scratch (and they have to taste good)
- Ride a gondola in Venice
- Learn to snowboard
- Be a speaker at a photography conference
- Attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans
- Somehow acquire 6 pack abs
- Improve my handwriting
- Attend Carnival in Rio
- Pay off my mom’s mortgage
- Truly appreciate beer
- Watch all of AFI’s top 100 movies (51 to go)
- Own a house, get married, procreate
- Dance the Tango in Argentina
- Watch the fireworks over Sydney Harbor on New Year’s Eve
- Learn to surf
- Keep a basil plant alive for more than 2 months
- Get re-certified to SCUBA dive and go at every opportunity
- Get my PhD
- Travel, travel, travel
- Photograph many, many more incredible people and events
I can’t wait to cross these off my list and continue to add to it.
I got a fortune cookie the other day that read, “Soon you will be on top of the world”. In a lot of ways, I feel like I already am. Happy birthday to me!
Starting this month, I’ll be featuring new images for download for you to use as your Facebook cover photo. Click to download it and see it at its full size and resolution.
Please note these images are made available for personal use only. If you’re still looking for these pictures as desktop images, you can get the confetti picture here and the balloon picture here. Unless I get a huge backlash for discontinuing the desktop pics, this will be the last month for them.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
~ Helen Keller
