One day between now and February 29th, I’ll turn 29.
Just like I’m not caught up with “birthdays” this year, I’m also not caught up by my age (or the stigma of being 30 in a year). I do, however, have a list of things that I’d like to accomplish before I turn 30 (thanks to your input from the original post) - and with the events of the last week (specifically news I received Friday night), this list is particularly important now.
Friday night, I found out that I had not been accepted to two more PhD programs (that makes 3 out of the 5 I applied for). One of the programs that I did not get into was the one that I had highlighted as being the one that I was most likely to be accepted into – so while I’m not trying to be negative, I am trying to be realistic. It doesn’t look like I’ll be beginning a PhD program in the fall, and while this doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on my dream to get a PhD, it isn’t going to start when I’m 29.
I’m not going to lie – Friday night was a hard time. I was really upset. I cried. I was ready to give up on my PhD dream, and I had NO idea what I was going to do with my life, especially not with the next five years.
Somehow, however, I woke up Saturday morning with a dash of perspective added to my disappointment.
Deciding that I wasn’t going to begin (or accepting that I wasn’t) was actually liberating. I suddenly had a whole year to accomplish all of the things I’ve been dreaming about having the time to do – and coincidentally, it also happens to be my 29th year. I’m not giving up on pursuing a PhD and next year, when it is time to apply again, I will apply and take the lessons I learned this year to make my applications even better.
I’ve also got time to attack my 30 before 30 list – and now I know exactly what I want to do.
- Run a marathon
- Pitch (and hopefully write) a book
- Take a photography class
- Become a certified yoga instructor
- Move to Seattle (yes, I’ve decided Seattle is where I belong, with or without a PhD program)
- Create (and hopefully teach) a running-centric philosophy/composition course at a university
- Visit Hawaii
- Become fluent in French
- Visit my grandfather who has Alzheimer’s (and family) in Virginia
- See the Spiral Jetty (by Robert Smithson) in person
- Present my thesis at an academic conference/get it published in an academic journal
- Find and wear a bathing suit that I truly feel confident in
- Visit the dentist
- Get a nutritional assessment to assess my gluten-free, vegetarian training diet
- Pay off all non-school debt including hospital/medical bills
- Take a painting class
- Design a new header for LauraLivesLife
- Create a running page on LauraLivesLife
- Travel to a non-Italian Europe location (hopefully France)
- Graduate (and attend graduation) with my MEd
- Practice gluten-free baking
- Choose, evaluate, and apply to 5 PhD programs that are a fit for my qualifications and research goals
- Get a full-time teaching/academic position
- Become a Lululemon ambassador
- Learn to write legible cursive
- Take a REAL vacation where I don’t check my email/think about work for a week (or more)
- Read The Feminine Mystique
- Campaign for my presidential candidate
- Learn to make sushi
- *reserved for your recommendation*
What do you think? What one thing am I missing from my list (and can add as #30)?
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