To continue with my 30 before 30 goals, here are the educational / self-development goals I want to achieve in the next 5.5 years.

1. Get an MBA from a respectable school that will round out my business, analytical, and “softer” people skills.
2. Learn to speak Business Chinese, preferably through an immersion program in China. (Later in my career I want to do a stint in China).
3. Learn to speak Conversational Spanish, preferably through an immersion program in Latin America (Chile? Ecuador? Argentina?)
4. Take a class or a workshop in negotiations where students conduct mock negotiations.
5. Take a session of cooking classes. (In France, I hope, but… in the States is okay too).
6. Take a class in real estate principles / finance. I’ve always found real estate interesting, and would love to get some foundational knowledge.

Because the days are long but life is short.

As a twentysomething, it’s hard to seriously believe in my mortality, even though the rational part of me understands it well.

So to help me with the goal of not being one of the young whom youth is wasted upon, here are 30 things I want to accomplish before I’m 30, divided into 5 categories (Personal, Career, Education/Self-Development, Travel, and Finance), with 6 goals each.

My personal goals:
1. Live on my own, in my own apartment. (I just want something on this list that I KNOW I’ll accomplish, okay? It’s not cheating!).
2. Publish an article / op-ed. Or book, as long as we’re dreaming big here.
3. Complete a 5K run. Without gasping for breath.
4. Throw a good party with really, delicious appetizers that are more or less “homemade”.
5. Learn to dance the Argentine Tango. And actually find some milongas and dance!
6. Get married.*

*I hesitated before I wrote this, because, isn’t it a privilege of modern women to be able NOT to have “get married” as a goal? This is not the 1950s, when women went to college for a BA and an MRS degree.

But I thought about it more and I decided, why not write it down? I shouldn’t be ashamed of wanting to get married. Assuming CB and I stay together, I’d like to get married before 30. And if we don’t stay together, then, well, I’d still like to meet and marry the love of my life (because if CB and I break up and I STILL think he’s the love of my life? I’d be up a creek without a paddle). But maybe not by 30.