The 30x30 Challenge

Today - June 23, 2013 - is my 29th birthday. 

Unlike some of my friends, I'm not really that freaked out about turning 30 next year.  In the last 11 years, I graduated from high school, college, and graduate school.  I married my junior high sweetheart, have a great job, am almost finished with my Ph.D., and own a house.  So I'm very happy with where I am in life, as well as where my life is hopefully headed.

But I'm also a woman who is focused on achievements, which means that I'm not satisfied with a simple one day celebration of a year of my life.  So for the last couple of weeks, I worked on creating a 30x30 list, or a challenge, if you will, of 30 things that I hope to do and accomplish before my 30th birthday.  The items on this list include several different types of goals, like ones that are educational, financial, physical, recreational, and spiritual.  Many of them are things I have done before (like attend a midnight movie and hold a newborn baby), while some of them are new (like run a half marathon and read the entire Bible in one year).

So without further ado, here is my official 30x30 Challenge:

1. Attend Sunday night church at least one night a month
2. Clean out and organize the office closet
3. Complete the coursework for my doctoral program
4. Complete the gallery wall in my house
5. Create and implement a safety "plan" for the house
6. Defend the proposal for my dissertation
7. Deep clean and purge the house of extra junk
8. Finally finish watching "Lost"
9. Find and buy the perfect little black dress
10. Get pedicures with my sisters
11. Give blood
12. Go on a fancy dinner date with my husband
13. Go to a midnight movie
14. Go to Six Flags with a group of friends
15. Have a certain amount of money in my retirement fund
16. Have a certain amount of money in our savings account
17. Hold a newborn baby
18. Keep a regular prayer journal
19. Make extra payments on my husband's student loans
20. Make extra payments on our mortgage
21. Participate in/practice "Meatless Mondays"
22. Pass my qualifying examination
23. Read the entire Bible in one year
24. Run five 5K races
25. Run a 10K race
26. Run a half marathon
27. Start a blog
28. Take a Barre 3 exercise class
29. Teach a Bible class at my church
30. Volunteer at Breakfast on Boulevard

This blog will chronicle my attempt to accomplish these 30 tasks, so stay tuned if you are interested.

And with that, I've just accomplished #27: Start a blog!

So here's to the last, great year of my 20s... Hopefully, it will be fun and memorable!!