Turning 30
I’m turning 30 today. According to my mom, I’m old haha.
After thirty years, I feel I’ve just become more me. And more comfortable being me. As children, I feel like we often try to be like everyone else to be accepted, but as we get older, we try to be different. And we start to realize that being different can actually be a good thing. When it comes down to it, we tend to be happier being ourselves. I can say I am happy with who I am today and lucky to have people I care about in my life.
30 things I've done
For my birthday this year, I thought I'd list 30 thirty things I've done in my life so far:
Watched sunrise among hundreds of pagodas in Bagan, Myanmar
Saw a sky full of stars reflected in the still water in Milford Sound, New Zealand
Frolicked in the the lavender fields in Provence, France
Saw Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel in Italy
Experienced the storybook village of Hallstatt, Austria
Had pizza in Naples where pizza was born
Made Thanksgiving dinner from scratch with friends in a foreign country
Had high tea & a picnic on top of a mountain with friends.
Took months off from college to race a solar car we designed and built across the Outback
Nominated by my teammates and became the first female mechanical team lead on the solar car team at Stanford.
Received my diver's certification on the Great Barrier Reef
Starred in a TV series episode with Ludacris and Tommy Lee
Learned how to use a camera that wasn't just a point and shoot
Bought my first car (my dream car) and outsold the salesman to get a really good deal on the last Friday of the month, the sunniest day in a normally raining Seattle, near closing time, and with a trade-in above Kelly blue book pricing. Thank you for the tips mom!
Scored the winning shot at a basketball game
Won a 200 meter dash in dress shoes
Took a welding class at a vocational school with several grandpas
Took Calculus as a sophomore in high school
Became friends with a random stranger while traveling overseas
Took my first decent photo of the stars
Had the opportunity to learn metal injection molding over several months with an industry expert.
Worked with a really cool team on F-22 jet fighter dynamics and met an amazing lifelong mentor who always fueled my never ending thirst to learn everything
Flight tested on the Boeing 787 to validate a dynamics model and never got nervous about landing on any other flight ever again after experiencing the corner cases...
Learned that for a good portion of my life, I'd been putting the toilet seat paper cover backwards
Backpacked Utah in a heat wave and went off roading on the scariest route to-date
Got myself out of an abusive first marriage and went through a divorce
Drove my mom through seven hours of traffic to see the tulip festival
Got accepted into the Stanford Joint Program in Design master's program & MIT Media Lab
Got my dream job and still enjoying it today
But best of all - Married the love of my life last year who is supportive in every way, even at work! He's always looking out for me, notices all the little things, and understands me in how I think and feel. He's patient and makes time for me to arrange, design, and photograph. He's also a good teacher. Just the best husband anyone could wish for.