Occasionally I’ll rummage through old folders and files on my computer when I’m trying to decide where to save something new. This week I ran across a document called 30 after 30 that I created a couple months after my thirtieth birthday–about seven years ago. I imagine it was supposed to contain thirty things I hoped to do, but there were only fifteen things listed. Of these, I’ve managed to check off about half:
Travel
1. Go to Germany with my Mom. DONE!
2. Visit remaining US states I have not yet been to: Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, Maine, Delaware. Still need to visit all of these.
3. Visit Spain. DONE!
4. Visit the Grand Canyon and stay for a week. Would love to do this. Haven’t yet.
Arts
5. Tell a story in a different city than Atlanta. Possibly done–I feel like this happened at the improv festival I attended in Vancouver where I performed in an Armando style show that mixed storytelling and improv.
6. Participate in NaNoWriMo. DONE-3 times!
7. Perform music at an Open Mic night. Can’t believe I wanted to do this and don’t see it happening anytime soon.
Culinary
8. Make a full menu from the NY Times Menu Cookbook including Beef Wellington! Haven’t done this. Sounds delicious!
9. Eat at The French Laundry. Haven’t done it. Still interested but less compelled to make it happen than when we lived in California.
Home
10. Plant and maintain a vegetable garden. Attempted this.
11. Learn to embroider. Still would like to do this someday.
Professional
12. Have a non-academic writing piece published online. Every week on this blog, right?!?!
13. Find a job that I love! DONE–twice! I loved teaching improv, and although I would have never expected embarking down this career path, I love being a trainer.
Athletics
14. Participate in a triathalon. Not sure I’ll ever do a triathlon because of the time commitment for training and the expense (bike equipment plus a pool membership). But I have done a marathon, two half marathons, and I want to run more races.
Volunteer
15. Become a tour guide. Like my Open Mic goal, I can’t believe I listed this. But in this case I can’t believe I knew so long ago I wanted to do what has become a very fulfilling part of my life this past year–volunteering as a tour guide at Oakland Cemetery.
If you asked me today to list thirty things I’d like to do after 37, I’d probably list items other than those I have yet to check off my 2012 list. In that sense, the past list acts like an archive–a reflection of my preferences and priorities at a particular point in time. Still, there were some items that seemed to foreshadow the more distant future like being a volunteer tour guide and the trip to Germany with my Mom. Here we are in Heidelberg in 2018–close to six years after I made my 30 after 30 list. 
Sarah Zureick-Brown 
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