The "30 for 30" project

My friend Maya is making a "30 before 30" list – I had never before heard of such a thing, but it intrigued me enough to google it. Apparently it's pretty common because you can find bloggers blogging about this here, here and here. Maya inspired me to make my own bucket list and share in this experience with her as we go through our 29th year in life (call it moral support, if you will), although I'm going to refer to mine as "30 for 30", for no reason except that last year ESPN made a documentary series with this title featuring great moments in sports history, and one of the films was about my alma mater and Miami Hurricanes football in the 80s! The U, baby! Anyhoo...

So. I can check off enter and win a social media contest, wear two Super Bowl rings, hold the Heisman trophy IN MARTHA'S LIVING ROOM, attend an Indian wedding, kayak single, delight in a Russian ballet in Russia (and see Alaska, pffffff!!), let a complete stranger show me around Morocco, learn to play chess, and start a blog – all in the past year alone. Before that, I swam with stingrays in the Cayman Islands ("swam" is used quite loosely in that I tried for a bit, cried like a sissy, then got back on the boat, but I still count it for effort!), stared a peacock square in the eyes on Fisher Island, moved to a new city, made friends with strangers on public buses, went on a hot air balloon ride over the dessert, took belly dancing classes, ventured into border towns in Mexico...

So. You can see my predicament in coming up with a Really Good "30 for 30". In undergoing this thought process, I found myself reflecting on some very interesting adventures I've had! While there was no specific rhyme or reason or self-imposed list at the time of doing any of the above other than because it sounded cool, the good news is that I'm way less boring than I thought! The bad news, there's always WAY more to do and not enough time (or money). I envision a list that stops you in your tracks, forcing you evaluate what you would like to accomplish or experience while you're able-minded and healthy.

That said, it's really hard to come up with 30 things in general! How do you decide what to put on your list? Should it consist of things that you're scared of doing? Or unusual challenges that you especially seek out? Or things that you think you can realistically do, perhaps because you know the opportunity is on the horizon or because they're within your budget and lifestyle? Is that a cop out?

The one thing that I've decided is that my list shouldn't be about continuous goals, perse, like "eat breakfast on a daily basis" or "be more positive". While these are no doubt worthy, I want my list to consist of one-time, semi-outlandish things to do before I hit the big 3-0 of official adulthood and I need to stop effing the eff around. 

Since I'm technically a bit over 29 and 3 months old, this leaves me with about 9 months to check things off until July 16, 2011. Which means I'd better get on with finalizing my list, stat. Please help!