Elizabeth Takes Us Down Memory Lane!!!

Elizabeth from She Likes Stripes is totally awesome!!  She has been 30 for a whole week now so I most definitely look up to her :)

When Cynthia asked for guest bloggers to help her celebrate Birthday Week, I jumped at the chance, and not only because my birthday is a week before hers, and that we're both turning 30 this year.

Ever since I can remember, I have had a bit of a strange relationship with my own birthday. I LOVE it, but it has a history of turning me into a bit of a basketcase. I can remember very strongly spending the week or so before my birthday every summer thinking about all of the milestones... "This is the last time I'll ever ride my bike to town while I'm 12!" "This is the last time I'll ever eat ice cream as an 11-year-old!"


(1984, 3 years old and clearly VERY HAPPY to have received an impossible-to-find Cabbage Patch doll. I'm still not good at hiding my displeasure now.)

It's a little bit... ridiculous, but it happened, almost every year. I can remember gifts (like the lava lamp I received for my 13th birthday, the one I wanted so BADLY), celebrations... so many details. I have been a bit nervous, honestly, as I have gotten older and have been facing the stereotypical milestone ages.

So in the past few years, I have marked my own birthday by writing a list of things I wanted to do each year. I am certainly not the first person to write a Birthday To Do List, but I have SO enjoyed writing the lists and documenting my progress each year with photos and eventually mini scrapbooks.



I am not planning to write another list to commemorate turning 30, mostly because my 27, 28, and 29 lists have been so enjoyable and memorable. (And it's getting much harder to come up with new things every year!) But I would HIGHLY recommend writing a birthday to do list, at least once. It's important to achieve a balance - keeping things from being too specific ("go on a trip" on my 28 to do list, rather than saying to go to a specific place), but also keeping fun, frivolous things on the list ("go on a picnic" or "play mini golf" or "drink beer samplers" in with more serious things ("finish couch to 5k" or "try not to freak out about turning 30"). I'd also say that this kind of list is the perfect time to include simple things that you always have wanted to do but just haven't gotten around to ("get new glasses" and "get a tattoo" and eating at certain restaurants).



And most importantly is to keep it fun - or, don't feel bad if you don't get to some of the items. And to document with photos, keep ticket stubs, etc so that you can then turn your list into a physical memory that you'll always be able to look back on. I love the idea that I'll be able to hand these minibooks to my future children and they can see what I was up to when I was 27 or the year before I turned 30.




But most of all? I think we could all use a dose of Cynthia's enthusiasm when it comes to both birthdays and getting older. Since we're the same age, I've tried my hardest to take Cynthia's perspective (that things just keep getting SO MUCH better the older she gets) rather than defaulting to my childhood panic about no longer being 29 and now being 30.

Happy, HAPPY birthday, Cynthia, and I personally think turning a day into a week-long celebration is something we should ALL be doing.

Thanks girl for sharing all your birthday nostalgia, I love you that much more after reading this!!!  
You can read Elizabeth's birthday posts here and here