30 days to 30 Mission

In 30 short days, I will be turning 30 years old.
 

This post is going to be all about how extremely THRILLED I am about this milestone birthday!
 

No, actually that was a lie. An enormous lie. But I will tell you, I have an idea about how I can feel better about this whole birthday thing. Just keep reading.

A few weeks ago, two of my sisters decided to take a little road trip to my neck of the woods for a night out on the town. My oldest sister is going through some pretty big changes in her life right now and she felt it necessary to have a Girl’s Night out on the town. I concurred.

The night was pretty fun. We drank, we ate, we chatted, we drank some more. It was a pretty typical sister gathering. We also danced, and we bar hopped. In fact, due to all the drinks we actually hopped our way right into a “Teeny-Bopper” bar on the way back to the hotel! I call it a “Teeny Bopper” bar because it’s full of “young things.” You know, the first year University students, and all the 19 (maybe 17) year olds.

It was so weird. The bar was completely empty at 11:30pm, I was a little skeptical that we would have fun there, but the other two legs (sisters) were pumped and ready for a time. So we went in and drank some more. We hit the dance floor (just the three of us) until about 12:30am when some people finally decided to show up.

It must be around age 27 when you realise that it’s much more efficient to start drinking early and end the night at midnight so that you get a full night’s sleep and aren’t so hung in the morning. Why do they not get it? Oh yea, because they have no children to wake them up at 6 am. Right.

Anyways, I was fine with this establishment (the drinks and music were great) up until I had to use the ladies room. We walked in to find (A) The place everyone was hiding all night and (B) The Pant-Less Party! Oh, and side-note, this was during that cold snap we had back at the beginning of February, when your lungs literally froze inside your chest just from breathing outside. Yea. OK back to the pants, or lack thereof. The freaking' MINI SKIRTS!!!! Holy Moly. I grabbed my sisters’ hand and slurred something in her ear along the lines of-- “these poor girls all forgot their leggings at home, what a sin.”

I GENUINELY, felt sorry for every last one of those women. There wasn’t a pair of jeans, legging, jeggings or tights. Not even a pair of hose to be found. Long story-short is that they looked at us like we were a pair of nuns, and gave us face-attitude that screamed “you know you wish your butt cheeks were hanging out too; I’m so hot and you…YOU ARE NOT!”At that point, I knew that I had to leave that bathroom because someone was gonna get bitch-slapped, and there was a good chance that it would be me.

Women (and I use that word really loosely here) like the ones in that bathroom, will eventually get older and realise that having their butt hanging out of their skirt is for hookers and pole dancers, not for them. It isn’t classy and no one looks at you and thinks, geez I really respect a girl who let's her butt cheeks hang out in bars on a Saturday night. I know my mother will just love her, I should bring her home to meet her! Ummm no.

I know most young women ARE NOT like this, but that is who I was face to face with in the bathroom that night. *shudder*

I actually do believe that the early 20’s stage in life is super fun, hilarious, exhilarating and such a great learning experience for every woman, but apparently things have changed too much for me to handle. I can now confirm that I am done with that stage of life and I’m pretty sure the girls in that bar thought so too.

We left, and it turns out I was the only one that thought “bitches be crazy” up in there. My younger sister was like “Oh no, I didn’t feel like we stuck out like sore thumbs, what do you mean? I thought it was fine.”

Yuuuupp, it’s not hard to tell whose 30^th Birthday is coming up soon. Mine. The next day I laughed at myself for being so freaking dramatic about it and came to the conclusion that not only am I on the cusp of lower egg counts, laugh lines, sun-damage, and a lower metabolism, BUT I have also become a little smidgen uptight and possibly boring and lame.

But, if I am going to be honest with myself, it has absolutely nothing to do with those girls in the headbands wrapped around their hips instead of their heads. Oops, I mean skirts. It really has nothing to do with them. I understand that people are different and choose different ways to express themselves. That is fine. It had more to do with the fact that I know I am getting old and in order to wear what they were wearing, I would have to step WAY, WAY, WAY, outside of my comfort zone. And... I think I have become a little MORE self-conscience in my old age. Especially in the face of a 19 year old who cares very little about how cold it is outside when choosing her outfit for a Saturday night bar hop.

My biggest goal right now is to figure out who I am as a person. What is my life purpose and how can I serve this life the best? So, I have come up with an idea to add a little spice to my life, and maybe just take my mind off this birthday.

I have decided, that leading up to my 30^thBirthday, I am going to wear headbands as skirts every day.

No, I'm not. That was a joke. I wouldn’t do that to my community. What I AM going to do is make it my mission to try something NEW that I wouldn't normally do each day AND/OR try to Pay it Forward in some way.

I made a huge leap out of my comfort zone with this blog, and it feels great, but I feel like it’s time to kick it up a notch. I feel like as an almost 30 year old woman I am kind of “stuck in my ways.” For example, I buy the same things at the grocery store pretty much every week. I where the same style of clothes all the time (I own many headbands, but wear them all on my head). I always have the same hairstyle. I read the same types of books. I talk to the same people.  I do the same exercises. Etc. You get where I am going with this right? I am pretty boring. I need some change and I am hoping that this mission will allow me to discover some new things about myself, and also make me feel good.

The idea of paying it forward throughout this mission will be amazing for me as well. I have so much to be thankful for in my life and putting small acts of kindness out in the world is a good way to show my thanks. It will make someone else happy, but hopefully also inspire people to do the same thing. It can't hurt to try anyway.

I am going to call it: Kate’s 30-to-30 Comfort Zone BUST and Gratitude Mission! OR K3t3CZBGM (either or)

Come check in with me every day to see how I am doing with it. I am going to try to take pictures and write about it each day and share my experiences with you. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone so I can grow and do something really positive for myself as I turn 30. I think that I owe it to the last few weeks of my 20’s to do something great for myself.

What do you think? Does this sound like fun or what? I have no idea what I am going to try that is new every day, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

Maybe I should go find one of those girls from the bar and buy her some leggings?

Oh, and FYI, there will be no bungee-jumping.

Oh, and FYI, I forgot February only has 28 days, so my first entry will be tomorrow and I will double up down the line. What? I'm tired of typing. Geez. Friggin February and its 28 days.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” –Neale Donald Walsch

Love,

Kate