Here I go! In five days, I turn 30. Sure, it's just an arbitrary number, but we only get a few birthdays that turn over both numbers on the odometer, and that seems like reason enough to celebrate. Allow me to get schmaltzy for a post.

I'm really looking forward to my thirties. Part of me has the optimistic idea that we spend our twenties figuring things out, making mistakes, and learning what we want out of our lives. Then, in our thirties, we take everything that we've learned and apply it and build the lives we want. Maybe we can afford to put it together a little better. Maybe we're more focused. Or maybe this is a completely romantic view that has little chance of matching up with real life.

Of course it's a romantic view. Life rarely works out the way we expect, and of course there will still be a billion things to figure out. But, much in the same way I have a really good feeling about 2010 so far, I think the next ten years are going to be a decade of adventure. I want to travel more. I want to write more. I'm not sure my 20-year-old self would believe that I'd be in grad school for writing. I can't even remember what my expectations were ten years ago, or if I had any. Right now, I have no idea where I'll be in ten more years. Will I spend my thirties working a series of jobs I don't necessarily care for just to support my writing and digital media interests? How much will I have achieved? Will my goals have completely shifted?

It's I guess there's only one way to find out. From where I sit now, it seems like a world of possibilities.