I’m turning 30 this year and I’m really excited about it. People seem to have mixed feelings about reaching milestone birthdays: sometimes with dread and apprehension. For the most part, I don’t look back at eras of my life with regret or remorse. When I graduated high school, I looked forward in excitement and anticipation to college, while many friends felt a sense of loss regarding the end of that period of our lives. When college graduation came around, I was ready to get the heck out dodge—move onto the phase of adulthood where first jobs, first apartments and a new-found independence would abound—while friends nursed their woes of leaving the days of sleeping until noon, drinking after class and escaping true responsibility, if not for a brief moment. Even when I left my first job out of college—one where I learned so much, grew as a person and really enjoyed—I walked away knowing deep down it was for the best and that it was exactly what I needed to do.
That sense of resolute determination has helped me so many times in the past. It’s a deep sense of purpose that makes me feel grounded and right where I need to be. At other times, when I can’t reach this inner sense of peace, I end up feeling very out of control and lost. It’s both a blessing and curse in that sense, because after a period of wandering, when I get back to the resolution, I feel absolutely whole again. At least for a little while anyway.
Turning 30 is treated so much as a milestone, but for me it feels very much like the next chapter. In one sense, yes, I’m just going to be another year older and hey, that’s just fine by me. In another way, 30 represents a form of excitement: I’m looking forward to this next decade. The 20s were fun: college, flirtations, moving out of my mom’s house, getting a job, getting another job, figuring out what I want in life, navigating how to get those things in life. Now I’m ready for the 30s. This is not to say that I’m not still navigating, figuring, getting, flirting, moving, funning. But I hope with the passage into one decade from another, there will be new experiences that have thus far alluded me.
In celebration of this milestone (there’s that word again), I have decided to celebrate my 30th birthday in epic style by doing some pretty epic things. And because I’m turning 30, I’m shooting to do 30 things. The symbolism of numbers is amazing. Some of these on this bucket list, if you will, have long been goals of mine, and some are new found. The only deadline is that I’d like to complete them all before I turn 31. I’m giving myself about a year to accomplish it all. As I usually do, I’ll be blogging about my accomplishments. So here’s the list.
The 30 at 30 list.
- Create a collaborative music playlist from 1981.
- Complete a marathon. (Learn more.)
- Get a tattoo of “Ten Blessings” in Japanese.
- Go on a European adventure.*—visiting Geneva, London, Edinburgh, Paris
- Perform on stage with a band for a song.
- Participate in L.A.T.E. Ride.
- Skydive.
- Visit the Sears Tower Skydeck.
- Visit Turkey Run and hike the canyons.
- Go to 30 gigs.
- Raise $3,000 for charity.
- Learn something new.
- Unplug from all electronics for a full 30 hours.
- Knit something commemorative.
- Participate in Project 365—starting with my 30th birthday.
- Write a song to be proud of.
- Try Bikram yoga.
- Take up a daily meditation practice.
- Save $3,000.
- Be Cat Woman (the Michelle Pfieffer version) for Halloween.
- Visit the Eiffel Tower at night.*
- Go on a road trip.
- Send myself flowers.
- Learn to live in the now.
- Visit Frank Lloyd Wright Museum.
- Write myself a love letter.
- Volunteer.
- Learn how to bake gluten free.
- Give up my car for 30 days.
- Throw a 30th birthday party, of course.
*Due to timing, this will not be done at the actual age of 30.
Completed goals: 15
Be inspired.
I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.
Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.
Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.
Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.
Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.
I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.
One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.
Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!