30 Before 30

As a fan of lists and to-dos, I created a #30before30 list back in 2012, 4 years before turning 30. Some of the items are doable, some I actually managed to tick off, but as I am revisiting the list again, some items are actually more feasible to be included as a life bucket list. Anyway, the list has been made, I have turned 30, so there’s not much to be done on the list anymore. What I’ll do now is to look back at some of the things that I actually did – you know, the items that I actually ticked off! Bear with me as this is going to be a quite lengthy post 🙂

03 of 30 : Travel Solo

I wasn’t much of a solo traveler back then, well I am still not today, but I have found the need to at least travel solo every year. Before I made the list, the closest I have came to traveling on my own was going on a day trip to London from Bournemouth. But that’s about it. I was always curious on whether I could survive traveling solo, to a destination that I can’t speak the language. Turns out I could! Yay! I visited Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok back in May 2012.. so that’s an item ticked off from the list.

04 of 30 : Visit Kalimantan 

I think I put this on the list because I have heard so much about the Island yet I never been. Back when the list was created, it was still hard to visit Eastern parts of Indonesia so I thought Kalimantan was more doable. So I went! I went to Derawan on North Kalimantan back in 2014. You can read my story here, but I can tell you that it’s a must visit if you’re into islands hopping. Such a gem!

12 of 30 : Take my mum and brother on a holiday 

I’ve always wanted to take them on a holiday, and I finally made it last year! Just when I’m about to turn 30. We went to Hongkong and I’ve shared my stories in these posts. So happy I finally made it and I hope I will be able to take them on future holidays in the future 🙂

14 of 30 : Find true love

When I created the list, I was in despair. I just ended a long-time relationship with someone that I thought was the one. Once the relationship was over, I had to rethink everything that I thought I know about love. Hence, even though at that time I did not know what it means, but I set myself to start my quest on true love before I turned 30.

Well now, 4 years later – I can happy say that I have found it and I know what it means.

18 of 30 : Get my name published in an article 

Okay so this is a bit tricky. I don’t actually know what I meant when I wrote this item on the list! Was it supposed to mean – to write and article and got it published? Published where? Offline or online media? Or was it supposed to mean have someone write about me in a published article? Hahahaha… so confusing, right?!

Anyway I think I want to settle with the first one. Ever since the list was made, I’ve published some posts in online publications and finally also published two articles for offline magazines! Yay! So this one’s settled, then 🙂

19 of 30 : Sing in Pub Karaoke 

So back in 2012 I told my friends about this thing and my friend K found out that there’s actually a pub in Jakarta that have open mic session every week. I managed to gather my closest friends from work and went to Marley, that day after work.

We went, had a great time, and then I managed to force myself to went on stage and sang! Hahahaha.. mind you I am by all means not a professional singer but luckily I can managed to remember all the lyrics correctly. In case you are wondering, the song that I sang was Wonderwall by Oasis. Haha, safe choice, isn’t it? 😛

21 of 30 : Watch sunrise from a mountain

I’ve seen sunrise several times but mostly in beaches and I know I am not much of a mountain person, so I had to put this on the list. I went to Mt.Bromo back in 2012 with a group of friends. It was a rather big group as there were 10 of us, and for sure it was a fun trip! and the sunset? it was breathtaking! I know my picture here does not do it justice, but I really recommend you take this trip at least once in your life.

22 of 30 : Make a financial investment

No further explanation needed but finally I can start to manage my finances better as I am now entering my 30s. I have started to build a solid savings, and even though still very little in amount, I now have managed to keep an investment account. Baby steps, but I’ll get there 🙂

24 of 30 : Visit Pekan Raya Jakarta

Haha this one’s funny .. I had to put it on the list because I’ve never been to Jakarta’s annual fair even though I’ve lived here most of my life!

Anyway, I finally made it in 2014 and have written my experience here.

29 of 30 : Go to a music festival (and camp – if possible) 

This one is one of my favorite things to be done on the list, and I am thankful to have experienced not only going to a music festival, but also camp! I loved the experience and really would not mind repeating it sometime in the future 🙂 Read the story here.

Ah well, it looks like I only ticked off 10 out of 30 items from the list. No worries! 😀 I had lots of fun on the journey!  And like I said, now that I think of it again, some of the items are not actually feasible like open an ice cream shop by the beach, or move to my own place. I mean, hello 26-years-old-me, how could you possibly think you could change from a broke employee on your first corporate job to having your own place in 4 years? 😀

There are also some things that I lost interest in, like buy a luxury bag or do slow dance (why are they on list at the first place?!).

And also, there are a lot of things that I could have easily done but I somehow did not, like run a marathon (I’ve done 16K so if I kept my pace I could have ran a marathon by now!), take a dance class (There was one near my old office but somehow thousand reasons kept delaying me to sign up!), finished reading and start to get a better understanding of The Qur’an (Well.. can’t say much about this but I’m still on that journey). Even, there’s this item on the list – buy a meal for a stranger, that I think could have easily been done. The idea was to go to a restaurant, find someone who eats alone and pay his/her meal. Never done it until no for whatever reason.

Anyway… no regrets! It was a once in a lifetime experience because I don’t think I’ll make 40 before 40 or even 50 before 50 hahaha.. and I don’t even keep a proper bucket list (I still want to visit every continents in the world, I want to learn another language and tons other things that I can put in my bucket list)… but in the end I just want to live a happy and healthy life, surrounded by my loved ones.

So that’s my 30 before 30 list. I once refrained from sharing about it on this blog but now I decided to do it, as a self-reminder of my younger days 🙂

Do you keep such lists? care to share some stories about it? x