My 30 Before 30 List

My 29th birthday is at the end of the month (May 31st, I'm a Gemini and yes that explains some things).  My anxiety about turning 30 started when I turned 28, so my approaching 29th birthday only increased it.  I decided I needed to find a way to get excited about my birthday, so I decided to make a 30 Before 30 List: 30 things I want to do before I turn 30.

I started making the list a few weeks ago and have already crossed a few things off, I'll post now and then about my progress on the list.  My rules for what can be on the list are that they have to all be things that I could likely do before May 2016, and they have to be "cross-off-able" so not like "Accept myself just as I am," because though I am working on that it's not something I can say, "Ok that's done and I can cross it off the list."  And I'm trying to keep it balanced so I'm not setting an unreasonable expectation for myself in the next year!

I'm sharing my 30 Before 30 List for a few reasons:

1. I hope that it will be interesting and entertaining for others, and perhaps inspire others to do things they've been meaning to do but have put off.  
2. I'm currently on a dating hiatus.*
3. I'm a workaholic, and my 30 Before 30 List will help encourage me to do things other than work! 
4. I'm aware that much of my anxiety about turning 30 is part of our culture's narrative about women and aging: basically women should try not to age or show age or talk about age.  We're taught to worship at the altar of youth and beauty, and it's all downhill from here.  It's a narrative of fear and scarcity: worries about fewer viable partners, being able to have kids, being less desirable, and time is the enemy (cue Garfunkel and Oates: 29/31).  This is my effort to call out and combat this weird bullshit.  Not that all women feel this way about turning 30, but that many share the same anxiety about aging in general.  And my tendency is to take awkward things that people generally don't talk about and put them front and center (e.g. The Average Girl's Guide to Suicide), I don't even quite know why.  Chalk it up to being a Gemini?

*Explanation of the Dating Hiatus: recently I've encountered some health issues that I realized were making dating very stressful for me, so I've decided to take a break from dating while dealing with these health issues.  I may explain it further in the blog in the future, and I haven't figured out exactly how long the hiatus will last (will somewhat depend on my health!) but figured it was worth noting in the blog.  

So here's my 30 Before 30 List:

(well, the 21 things I have on the list so far, and I'm glad that I have room to add!)

Career Goals

1. Get full financing for my film The Average Girl's Guide to Suicide.
2. Start Production on my film The Average Girl's Guide to Suicide.

Around LAlaland
3. Go to Chateau Marmont.
4. Go to a Cinefamily Screening.
5. Go to the Watts Towers.
6. Plan a beach day with friends.
7. See a movie I've been meaning to see for ages.
8. Go to Renaissance Faire.
9. Volunteer for at least one day (at a soup kitchen or animal shelter, etc.).

Get out of Town

10. Go to Salvation Mountain/The Salton Sea/Slab City/Cabazon Dinosaurs
11. Go to at least one state I haven’t been to yet (Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, or Maine)
12. Go camping in Joshua Tree.

Me!
13. Clean out my closet, donate or sell clothes I don’t wear.
14. Go through & get rid of at least one box from my parents’ garage.
15. Do the Master/Master Teacher Reiki course.
16. Take a day off and do something fun!
17. Ask someone out on a date.

18. Get something nice for my apartment, like a framed piece of art. 

19. Get a massage. 

NSFM (Not Safe For Mom) - may be revealed at a later date, but for now I'll keep these secret

20. NSFM Goal #1

21. NSFM Goal #2 

So far I've crossed 3 things off the list:
4. Go to a Cinefamily Screening.
5. Go to the Watts Towers.

8. Go to Renaissance Faire.
And I'll write about them some time in the near future!

If you have suggestions for things to add to the list, leave a comment below!
xoxo Jean