10 by 30

I count myself lucky that I am still young enough that a period of time as fleeting as a year, two years, three years still feels long; that a year can stretch for what seems like an eon considering all of the changes that I go through. When I look back a year, two years, three years, I am at once shocked that that version of myself ever existed, so long ago and faraway is it, but also at how quickly the time has gone.

Two years ago, spring of 2011. I spent my days subbing in small rural school districts around Appalachian Ohio, regularly going all around Athens County and as far as the Ohio River for a day's work. I loved it. I thrived on the constant adventure, and I relished the opportunity to hone my developing teacher-skills in various scenarios. It was during this time period that I first experienced and later fell in love with special education, though that is a story for another day.

It was mid-May, a few weeks before my twenty-sixth birthday. I was subbing in the Southern Local School District in Racine, Ohio, a town of around 675 situated on the banks of the Ohio. West Virginia lay a few minutes away on the other side, and a huge coal plant stood silhouetted against the rising sun as I headed into town each morning. I have learned some painful lessons over the years about the luck of the draw that composes a school climate - sometimes, it's the right school for you, and sometimes - it is not. I got lucky with Southern; despite the 40-minute drive and my seeming outsider-ness, it worked. I subbed there quite a bit.

One day I was to sub in an elementary classroom, but got pulled over to the high school (across the parking lot) to do a few periods of 11th-grade English. In one of the classes, students were asked to write about 10 things they wanted to accomplish by the time they turned 30. Asking 16-year-olds what they would like to achieve by age 30?! The students were utterly snowed. The only advice I could give them: 
"30 is a lot farther away than you think. It feels like it has been a very long time since I sat where you sat, and I can yet barely envision 30. Think of anything you would like to do in the reasonable future, and chances are, that reasonable future exists before you turn 30."

That, however, got me to thinking, and once the students were quietly working away, I sat behind the teacher's large oak desk, strewn with assignments and that day's sub notes, and got to thinking. I would be 26 in less than two weeks, so 30 was just over four years away. If these 16-year-olds in Meigs County, Ohio, could have "10 by 30" lists than darn it, so should I! 

Bearing in mind the advice I had given the student - that anything you would like to do in the reasonable future probably will come to pass before you turn 30 - I did come up with two lists, a "Do before 30" list and a "Do this ever" list. I wrote these lists with the full self-awareness that even creating such a list was probably a bit naive, that I had no idea what 30 could possibly mean, and that even more so I had no idea if Future Sarah would want the same things as Current Sarah.

I suddenly remembered those lists today, a few weeks after my 28th birthday. I have less than two years to go until I begin my fourth decade of being alive (wait. . . what?!) and though I still have no clue what it will actually feel like to be 30 (probably about the same as it will feel to be 29 and 364 days), I thought I would revisit this list and assess my progress.

And so I give you, my 10 x 30 list, and my 10 Things Ever list: (with progress noted)

10 Things I'd Like to Accomplish by the time I'm 30

1) Master's Degree (well....almost)

2) Marathon

3) Live another somewhere else

4) Visit another country

5) Fall in love at least once

6) Sew something ("learn to sew")

7) Make homemade jam

8) Play in a musical group of any sort

9) Decide if I want kids

10) Publish something I've written

10 Things to Accomplish Ever

1) Finish going to all 50 states (I did check off two more after making this list)

2) Make a home with another person/ a partner

3) Own a bike again

4) Live nearer my parents for a while

5) Stay being happy and healthy

6) Have a job teaching in some way

7) Try out for Jeopardy (I did one of those online things, which may count)

8) Hike on parts of both the AT and PCT

9) Grow a garden

10) Learn some self-defense

Considering how often I tend to change my mind, I actually feel pretty good about the fact that I have actually accomplished anything on this list. My biggest dilemma now is how avidly I will try to achieve the rest of these in the next two years. Even when I made this list, I feel like there were a few that I added on simply to round things out. Maybe I need to create a modified, 10 x 30 redux - v. 28.

Cheers to the ongoing adventure that life has turned out to be!