Turning 30 in Community

5:57 AM


In Spare Key, birthday speeches are a tradition. I feel like teaching is a daily speech and I don't particularly relish sharing my thoughts out loud, so I typically refrain from the tradition. Well, this year is a big year for me, so I thought I would write a birthday letter for myself to read every year of my 30’s to remind me of my resolutions for how to spend the next decade. I have a hunch that Spare Key will be part of the next decade, so this seems like a good place to post it. Here goes...
Turning 30 is something that many people dread. It marks turning a year older and people don’t like the idea of getting old I guess. I have not felt that and plan to always embrace getting older. Everyone is doing it, after all. Aging is a process that I look forward to. I like gathering experiences and growing in my knowledge of lots of different things. You can’t do that unless you grow older.


I think one thing that contributes to my attitude about growing older is the community of people I am surrounded by that I get to share life with. Just this weekend, I spent a wonderful weekend hiking, playing games, cooking, and catching up with some of my closest friends at a cabin in Southeast Missouri. Hiking has been my birthday tradition for a few years now. Every year friends near and far come together for a weekend in March to explore nature together. I share multiple meals a week with some of these people. We share expenses and struggles, and disappointments, and CSA shares, and occasionally a side of beef. When you are surrounded by such a community, how can you dread growing old?


My thoughtful husband recently asked me if I had any goals for my 30’s. I hadn’t given it much thought, so as I pondered I realized I do have two main goals. I’m posting this here so that I can be reminded of these goals each year at this time, and so that Spare Key can help me accomplish them.
  1. I want to say yes more often. I want my practical early to bed early to rise nature to take a step to the side every once in a while in order to say yes to invitations to share in a meal, a drink, some Andy’s, or just a walk.
  2. I want more adventure. In our bedroom, we have this cool wall hanging that spells the word ADVENTURE. There are so many amazing places just in Missouri that I haven’t explored. Nature is therapy to me. I need more of it. Even if no one wants to go with me or no one is available to hike on a Wednesday morning in the summer, I am going to. I started a summer adventure list and everything.


This pretty much sums it up. I think these two goals can be summed up by saying that I want to be more present. I am such a big planner. I actually love planning. But part of my planning for the next decade is going to include intentional adventures to experience new things with new people and old friends. At the same time, I don’t want my planning nature to get in the way of the beauty of life that spontaneity creates. Will you join me? Let’s go on an adventure.

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Amber Howard

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