Life begins at...whenever you want it to, ffs.

[rhivolution]

Delightfully and a touch maudlin-reflective today, as I stare at 30 and 30 stares back at me. I need to remind myself that I have done things and I am good and Julia Child didn't even know how to cook until she was 40.

I've come out of my 20s with the following good things:
- a supportive and sweet life partner who loves me for being my messed up liminal geeky social justicey self, and an in-law family that are dear. and a home in a country that I am conflicted but generally happy with.
- an okay, if occasionally awkward, relationship with my family.
- two degrees that I enjoyed getting, and with comparatively limited debt.
- a job that, while not in my ideal career, is worthwhile, allows me to exercise critical thinking, while working with good people and being decently compensated.
- loads of not-necessarily-useful-but-awesome knowledge.
- not-great but acceptable health.
- not loads of creative work, but still stuff I am proud of (among these: dissertation! vids! RP which is a goddamn creative work!).
- brilliant creative friends scattered worldwide like yourselves.


There are things I want to do at thirty, though--blog a lot more, read a lot more, write a lot more, vid a lot more. I NEED ACCOUNTABILITY. I need to figure out how to sort this--suggestions welcome.

Also:
- If you follow me on Twitter, I've posted quotes and music videos from the #1s of the day, like the true recent history geek that I am.
- Shout if you have a 3DS and would like to be friends omg. matt got me pokemonz let me show you them...once I have actually started playing.

Comments

[zana16]

oh gods, if you figure out accountability, let me in on the secret! I am generally rubbish at it.

[ashkitty]

That sounds like you are totally doing well to me! I recall hitting 30 with 'a vague but implausible idea of things I might like to do.'

[futuransky]

Happy birthday!!

[ar]

You've done good on the whole. ♥ Happy birthday, with all my wishes that the next decade is great to you.

Keeping track of what I read has made me much more accountable--I like seeing how many books I can get through, lol. I'm not sure for suggestions for any of the others, though. Blogging a lot and writing a lot are so difficult! But definitely worthwhile goals.

[dynamicsymmetry]

I'll be staring down the same this March. It's an interesting number. In terms of accountability... Man, I dunno, I use preoccupation with the existential horror of mortality but YMMV.

Happy birthday!

[tempusfrangit]

I HAVE ZE POKEHMANZ

[intheenditslove]

Happy Birthday!

[bossymarmalade]

Happy birthday!!

I wonder if a rewards system would work towards accountability? Like, once you've completed a certain number of blog entries etc., you give yourself a treat. Something that you could have gotten for yourself before, but specifically put off as a reward for blogging.

[frogmajick]

I'm on the flipside of thirty with the big 4-0 coming up on Black Friday. Accountability comes when you least expect it, if it comes at all. This past decade has been a blur and don't feel any more prepared for 40 than I was for 30.

So here's to the happiest of birthdays, regardless of the number. Much love <3

[thetidebreaks]

yooo what is your code I want to add you on my 3DS.

Do you have X or Y?

[riverlight]

Re: aKeep posting about what you want to do, even if the post is nothing but "haven't made progress, la la la." At least for me the guilt is a little bit of an incentive! (Hey, it's not the healthiest of incentives, but it works for me.)

And happy birthday!

(PS Andrea Bocelli didn't start singing professionally til he was 34!)

[sasha_feather]

The 30s are waaaaay better than the 20s!

[littlebutfierce]

Happy birthday again!

Lift.do has been helping me with productivity & accountability; I like having streaks of studying French or whatever. Lots of ppl have writing habits on there or stuff like "work on secret project, " heh. I linked to my profile on dw recently if you wanted to poke around & see if it might help.

[mr_gent]

That's a pretty awesome list! Happy Birthday ♥ In my personal experience, 30s are the years when you actually figure out (or at least contemplate) what really matters to you in your life. I even feel like I'm only now beginning to work at this growing-up business, because the 20s were way to chaotic and X-TREEEEEME. I hope your 30s will be amazing and/or pleasantly mellow for you!

[jesse_the_k]

That's an awesome, impressive list!

I was just playing with a nifty online brain-extension called Workflowy. Perhaps that would help in the accountability department?