30 Things to Do During My 30s

I was talking with someone the other day who is about to turn 30 years old. He was freaking out a bit because, in his mind, hitting 30 somehow signaled an end to everything fun in life. I can understand his fear since there seems to be a myth that hitting 30 somehow means that you’re old. But you know what was the main difference between the night before my 30^th birthday and waking up on my 30^th birthday? Nothing. I was still me.

Being in your 30s doesn’t mean the end of fun and of a vibrant life. It’s the start of a new decade of hopes, dreams, and adventures. So, if you’re fearful of turning 30, or one of those other supposed milestone years like 20, 40, or 50, I encourage you to make a list of things that you want to do during your new decade. What new dreams do you want to go chase? What big ideas do you want to pursue? What little, goofy, yet incredibly cool, things do you want to do? I’d love to hear some of yours. Here is a list of mine.

1. Have my novel published. One of my wonderful mentors gave me some awesome revision suggestions for my novel, so I’m thinking that the chances of this happening may increase after my revisions. Hopefully.
2. Write more novels.
3. Write more screenplays.
4. Take a picture at Barnes & Noble with a book that I’ve published. Seriously, how cool would that be?
5. Sell a screenplay.
6. See one of my screenplays actually on the screen—whether that be on the Silver screen, the TV screen, or the computer screen.
7. Publish in a scholarly journal. I’m working on it, and I’ve gotten close. But close only counts in hand grenades and public restrooms.
8. Achieve success in the scholarly world. This means presenting at more conferences, achieving academic prestige within my field, etc.
9. Achieve monetary success in my writing. I love writing. I really do, and I will always write. However, I would like to make some money at it, and that doesn’t make me a sellout. You’d understand if you saw my current paycheck. *insert the tiniest violin to play the tiniest sad song* I’ve placed in some contests, and the prize money was enough to cover my entry fees for those contests and then some (in a few cases). I’ve also done some copyediting and ghostwriting (oh yeah, those are things that I do now, so message me if you’re interested; okay, shameless plug over). But it sure would be nice to get enough money from my writing and just buy a boat. Or something. It doesn’t have to be a boat. Although, a boat would be cool . . . .
10. Fish more.
11. Worry less.
12. Be happy with who I am. Overall, I am happy with who I am as a person. Sure, there could always be some tweaks here and there but, in general, I’m pretty okay with who I am.
13. Obtain my PhD. Many years ago, my best friend noticed that as your degree got more advanced, the hat that you wore at graduation got uglier and uglier. She is not wrong, and I want that fashionably-questionable, floppy doctorate hat.
14. Make an entire meal of homemade dim sum. I’m part Chinese, and I loooove dim sum. However, I don’t know how to make many dim sum dishes. So, I want to learn how to make some of my favorites (such as steamed custard buns), and make an entire meal’s worth of dim sum.

    

15. Fish in two states I have not fished in yet. I’m thinking Alaska, Utah, or Idaho.
16. Fish for king salmon. I want to catch a big, old king salmon with a monstrous hook jaw. I once saw a picture of a lady who was about 90 years old, and she was posing with a massive salmon with that kind of jaw on it. She couldn’t even lift the thing and her fishing guide had to hold it for her. I want that kind of salmon. I also want to be that kind of senior citizen when I get old.
17. Nurture my passion for photography. I’m not very good at it, but I do thoroughly enjoy it, and I admire those who can do amazing photography. If you have a photography blog, or have a lot of photos in your blog, then comment below or message me so that I can follow your blog and study the craft.
18. Make a positive difference in someone’s life as often as I can.
19. See a wild bear. Living in the mountains and being outdoors so often, you would think that I would have seen a wild bear by now. But nope. Apparently, everybody I know has seen one, but me? Nope. There was even a very confused bear who ran through an urban park here. But was I there to see it? Of course not.
20. Net a 30-inch brown trout for a certain someone on the Truckee River. I’m a good netter of fish. Actually, maybe I’m not good, but dang nabbit I commit. I limped for a month after taking a bad fall in the river while trying to net a rainbow trout for my dad. Good news: I netted the trout. Bad news: I still can’t feel part of my leg. Nevertheless, I’m going to call this a win.

    

21. Do more music. I love music, and I love making music via either singing or guitar. Am I very good at either? No. In fact, there’s a cruelty in it, because I can hear myself get offkey when I sing, yet it’s difficult to correct the sour note at times for me. Oh, my poor, poor neighbors.
22. To not say goodbye to any more family members. I understand that I have little control over this. But, honestly, I’d like not to go through that pain again for a very, very, very, very long time.
23. Try belly dancing. Because why not?
24. Catch a 20-something-lb trout. It’s my white whale.
25. Try aerial yoga. I’m not sure why, but it just looks like fun. Maybe this is because Men Try, LaurDIY, and the Try Guys did videos on attempting aerial yoga, and it looked like so much fun.  I’ve included the videos below if you want to watch them.
    
26. Get better at skeet shooting. Nevadans are notorious for being able to shoot well. Yet, I’m a Nevadan who can’t shoot. This is a travesty. I am shaming my state by being so terrible at this. I never want to kill anything (I’m a weenie and would feel too bad), but I do want to be able to hit just one clay pigeon some day.
27. Get good enough at fly fishing to be able to volunteer for Casting for Recovery. This has been a dream of mine for a while, but I’ve never felt adequate enough with my knots or my knowledge of flies to be able to volunteer. I will change this, because Casting for Recover is a really neat organization and I believe in their mission.
28. Find a fast way to grade students’ essays. Oh, wait. There is no fast way.
29. Play Horizon Zero Dawn II. Yes, I’m a gaming nerd, and Horizon Zero Dawn was a fabulous game. I want to be able to play its sequel. Do you hear that Guerilla Games? It’s all on you now.
30. Find balance. Each time I seem to be doing great in one area of my life, two other areas appear to tank. So, I want to find balance, and just do great and be gloriously successful in all of the areas all of the time. That’s not too much to ask, is it?