30 before 30

I'm turning 30 in 9 days. 

The build up to this birthday was rife with jokes, jabs and let's face it some anxiousness. Mostly from my husband. It will be the only 1.5 years that we'll be in the same age bracket. This is probably a delicious thought to him - especially since I never miss the opportunity to remind him of my 'youth'.

I will miss telling people I'm in my twenties. My cousins are still in their twenties. My husband's nephews and nieces are in their twenties. It was cool that I had achieved so much in my twenties. I was some kind of rock star - even if it was just in my head. You see, according to me, I genuinely lived my twenties the way they should be. I ensured that I lived up to my one  very consistent value system - to travel. I traveled so much so that my passport is running out of pages to stamp, 50% of my external hard disk has pictures of my travels, and I managed to spice up almost ever single trip. That brings me to my second value - try the different. I'm a wuss, scaredy cat - basically a chicken. But I never chicken out. I was curious about rock climbing, I was 15 kilos overweight for a very short person, I was scared shitless...but I climbed that freakin' facade of rocks, even if it meant my friend helped me cheat the first 4 meters. I really didn't want to leave Sydney without swimming in one of its pristine beaches. So I swam in 5 degrees Celsius water in a secluded, beautiful beach. I hitched a ride from a stranger that evening coz I missed the last bus out. I backpacked the coast of Kerala with less than Rs. 7000 in my pocket. I ate at little joints and socialized with the locals. It enriched my life. Now that's where another one of my value system kicks in - food. I have a constant struggle with my weight...I have spent my entire life fighting off the extra kilos. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But I never gave up on eating..and hell, eating well. My friends on Facebook are tired of the pictures of food I put up. They don't know how much I love food. These pictures are part of my life's scrapbook.

So I asked myself last month what do I want to do to commemorate and add meaning to my 30th. I wanted to do 30 things that encapsulated these values and added to my growth as a person. I prepared the list and I very sincerely followed it. For 1 week. I couldn't last longer than that! I have no idea why I abandoned the list. Maybe I was satisfied the way my life was going? Maybe I crossed the toughest ones off my list in the first week itself? Maybe I am actually quite comfortable turning 30 now? Or maybe I'm just plain busy and tired to remember each day. I don't regret it though. It made me take a real hard look at my life. When I listed out the 30 things, I noticed most of them were very, very simple stuff I wanted to do - stuff that I already do! Like take a long, quiet swim...I do that thrice ever week. Two, spend some quiet time at home in the morning watching the birds in our balcony. I do that 5 times a week.  Three, say nice things to my husband. I do that more often than I thought! Four, enjoy a really good waffle cone ice cream. Okay, that I need to earn after a day of watching what I eat or swimming for an extra 15 minutes.

Hmm. Guess I'm turning 30 in 9 days and I can look back and say that for each year of my twenties, I've got a story to tell. I've had what I would call 'my' wild twenties. Now I'm keen on exploring these 30's. People tell me that this is when you truly enjoy life - you are confident about who you are, you are more settled with a steady flow of income, you add dimensions to your life through partners and children. I can't wait to see how I'm gonna live my 30's!