30 by 30

I took my good friend Autumn out to breakfast this morning for a belated celebration of her 30th birthday.  Autumn has been one of my very best friends since the first day of high school when we decided to stick together on the all school field trip.  I only knew one person in our entire school (all 100 students), so making a fast friend was huge for me.  At her 15th birthday, Autumn told me that she felt like we were kindred spirits, just like in Anne of Green Gables.  That's a huge complement for a 14/15 year old girl.  And we've stuck together ever since.  We've been friends for over half our lifetime.

Christmas banquet, sophomore year. Autumn thinks I look scared of her. 

And today we dragged our pregnant selves (she's due a month after me) and two kiddos out to Shakabrah for a delicious bite to eat and a chance to laugh about how our moms wouldn't let us listen to The Verve Pipe and how we recorded The Peoples Choice Countdown on cassette to listen to on the way to school.  It was a great morning.

BUT here's the issue that I'm faced with now.  Autumn's birthday (which was actually two weeks ago) is exactly four months before my birthday.  When we were younger, Autumn's birthday meant that I would be the next girl in our little group to have a celebration, or get her license, or register to vote, or buy a beer, or whatever rite of passage came with that year.  Now it means that I'm the next friend to turn the big 3-0.  That seems like a big deal.  And I'm forced to ask myself, "What have I ever accomplished with my life that's so great?"  

I know that I've done some really cool things.  And I'm hoping to live a lifetime of doing more really cool things.  And in that spirit of accomplishment I'm making a list.  30 by 30.  30 things, big and small, that I want to check off my list.  Don't worry.  I'm not going to get all crazy and try and learn Mandarin or run a marathon by February.  These will be reasonable goals.  And don't worry.  I'll give myself a healthy heaping of grace.  After all, I am 6 months pregnant and toting around a 14 month old.  But I do want to enter the next decade of my life masterfully.  

I've given myself a bit of a head start in that I started working on writing this list after Aurelia's 1st birthday and have a few that I can cross off already.  I'll have the complete list up tomorrow.  And it will be epic.  Prepare yourselves.