My Best Year Yet

My 30th year has come and gone. Not far gone, mind you, but gone nonetheless. Age, however, has come up in a few conversations recently, and I felt like weighing in. One friend recently referred to his birthday as "my extremely late twenties." Another has now had several twenty-ninth birthdays. I told another friend I was excited she was turning 100000 (in binary of course), but she didn't answer me so maybe she didn't think it was as amusing as I did.

When I turned 30 I received several comments suggesting I have now suddenly gotten "old." This is expected. The vast majority of birthday cards available seem focused on aging as something to be avoided, hidden, or pitied. A problem, in other words. I try to avoid them, largely because I don't see aging as a problem.

I'm quite proud of it, to be honest. It is my stated goal to live forever (or die trying) and every birthday is another step closer to that goal. Not everyone gets this far and I consider each birthday a success to celebrate, not a black mark to fear.

I've said it before, but 30 is the kind of number that scared the hippies. It doesn't worry me much. Especially considering it was pretty much the most eventful year of my life to date. Thirty was a really good year for me. It was FULL of things I should have blogged about. I didn't, though, because I was too busy DOING them. Here, then, is a list of the awesomeness (because I like lists AND I like awesomeness):

1. I earned my Masters Degree
The day after I turned thirty, I acquired a Master's degree. All the work happened before my birthday, but the actual degree came as a birthday gift.

2. I traveled across country with my brother
I was helping him move from his own grad school to his job with the National Forest Service fighting forest fires in Wyoming. Along the way we saw New Orleans, visited friends in Houston, bar hopped in Austin, wandered down the Riverwalk in San Antonio, delved in to Carlsbad Caverns, took our cousin to see the Painted Dessert, the Petrified Forest, and the Grand Canyon, participated in a bachelor party in Las Vegas, and spent time with our grandmother in Utah. It was a hell of a trip.


3. I moved to Syracuse, New York
First there was the move and the unpacking. Then there was the living there. I got to know the future in-laws much better, managed to go home more often, ate some delicious food, experienced a real winter for the first time in almost a dozen years (I've mentioned my opinions on winter before), and learned more about the retail industry than I ever expected to.

4. I went to Germany with my fiancee and the Penrocks
Fantastic. We saw castles in the Romantic Rhine (intact and otherwise), spent several days in Munich, and toured around Bavaria while staying in beautiful Leutasch Valley. Sarah has several posts explaining just how much fun this was, starting here.


5. I helped plan a wedding
This involved much planning as well as several trips to the beach that were "absolutely necessary for research purposes"

6. I had a [censored] awesome bachelor party
We went to [censored] where we attended [censored], saw [censored], toured a [censored] or two, and of course, plenty of [censored]. The whole thing was just [censored].

7. I got married on the beach
We could not have had a better day. It was perfect and delightful and amazing.


8. I spent a week in San Francisco on our honeymoon
We spent the first half in the city doing SF tourist things like Alcatraz, the Exploratorium, the Wharf, as well as various hidden and fun spots recommended by my cousin. We spent the second half in wine country, at a more relaxed pace. Again, Sarah comes through with the blog posts. Wedding here, honeymoon here.

All before I turned 31.

Like I said, it was a ridiculously awesome year. I can't wait for the next one.