Well, it’s here!  I’m 30-years-old!  Today. 30. 30-years-old.  Today is my birthday. My 30th birthday. A huge milestone.  A time to reflect on the last 30 years and plan for the next 10, 20, 30 — and beyond.

Inspired by my last post, where I captured some of the greater highlights of my 20s, I feel it necessary to project what I’d like to set out to achieve in my 30s.  There have certainly been some things that I’ve been mulling over for quite awhile and I think it’s about time that I officially commit myself to accomplishing them now that I’m a bona fide adult.  Here it goes:

1. Finish a marathon in under 4hrs
2. Complete a triathlon
3. Travel to Italy, France, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland
4. Get certified to teach yoga
5. Learn to ski/snowboard
6. Take piano lessons
7. Finish my t-shirt quilt [a long-term project I've been postponing forever]
8. Bolster my personal savings [actual details reserved for Katie and her financial adviser]

I think that’s about it for now.  I intend to revisit this post and add to the list when other long-term goals present themselves, but I wanted to get these first few up and publicly posted so as to hold myself accountable.

Here we go!  Wish me good luck!  Today is day #1 for the next 10yrs [well, assuming the world doesn't end in 2012].

***Disclaimer: please note that none of the aforementioned goals include having babies, securing a man/getting married, or obtaining a mortgage.  Not to say that these things are completely off the table.  I just don’t feel that I should be working hard to cross those things off of a goal-oriented list when, to me, whether they happen or not is entirely up to fate and in the chance that they don’t happen, I don’t want to feel disappointed.***

This day has finally come.

Tonight marks my last night as a twenty-something and in many ways, I find it strangely satisfying.  After attending yoga earlier today and mentioning to Elizabeth that my 30th birthday is tomorrow, she remarked “you’ve had a really good decade, Katie”.  It occurred to me then that she was right; what a great perspective to have on the eve of the next decade of my life.  Of course this totally warrants a blog post, where I felt it only fitting to list the highlights of the last decade.  Indulge me for a moment:

Highlights of my 20s:

• Graduating from college in 4yrs
• Moving to San Francisco [and subsequently setting up my adult life here]
• Gaining financial freedom [paying off my car, student loans and credit card, setting up my 401K, etc]
• Completing 5 marathons and 8 half marathons [9 after tomorrow’s race]
• Discovering a love for Bikram yoga
• Participating in the 10th annual AIDS LifeCycle Ride [535mi on my bike in 7 days]
• Embarking on several international trips [UK, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Mexico]
• Working for a start-up company, a company relatively fresh out of start-up mode, and a well-established Fortune 500 company
• Embracing my love for music [read: more concerts than I can count, music festivals Coachella, Ultra, Outside Lands, Treasure Island, Electric Zoo]
• Falling in love, being okay with being vulnerable, and mending a broken heart
• Making new friends, reconnecting with old ones, and supporting friends progress through new chapters of their lives [think: marriage, children, relocating across the country or to another country, going back to school, going through a significant break-up, starting new careers, etc]

I’m sure there are some other highlights that I might be by-passing, but these are the ones that stand out as most prominent for me tonight.  I look at this list and my heart swells with pride, for as great as my 20s were, I know that my 30s will have many more great things in store.  Thanks for the memories, 20s. You were fabulous.

i am so happy right now
i’m at home
the sun is streaming in through the windows of my living room
i’m laying on my stomach on the floor
the light is hitting the back of my leggings
it’s warm
and bright
and music is playing in the background
#happiness.

I stumbled upon this little gem of a song by Snow Patrol today and couldn’t help but shake my shoulders and tap my foot to the beat.  Enjoy!

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.

They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

- Apple Inc. 1997

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

A friend of mine passed these talks off to me today and I just fell in love with them.

My hope is that you will, too.  Enjoy.

After talking with Derek, Megan and Brian last night about the things we each aspire to accomplish this summer, I felt both compelled and inspired to create my own “Katie’s Top Ten List of To-Do’s” for the summer of 2011.  Indulge me for a moment:

1. Participate in the 10th annual AIDS LifeCycle ride  complete!
2. Go skydiving with Derek Brookmeyer [we were supposed to go on his birthday back in March through a GroupOn but due to low cloud coverage, we were forced to postpone]
3. Ride my bike to CalTrain for work at least once
4. Attend at least one Stern Grove concert complete! Neko Case + The Dodos, Sunday, July 3rd
   
5. Participate in Critical Mass
6. Run the SF Marathon in under 4hrs
   UPDATED: Run the SF Half Marathon in under 2hrs complete! Finished in 1:56:27!
   
7. Participate in SF Pride complete!
8. Travel abroad with my best girlfriends in celebration of our upcoming birthday milestone [ahem, 30. gulp]
9. Spend a weekend up in Napa, CA complete!  Monday, July 4th
10. Attend Meagan McCrystle’s wedding in North Carolina complete!  Meagan and Patrick were married on Saturday, September 17th 

I think that about covers it…. well, for now, at least.  Seeing this list has me so excited for all that lies ahead this summer, as it means spending time with friends that I love, enjoying San Francisco and exposing myself to new things.   Bring. It. On.