For months, I’ve been thinking about different things I want to accomplish, experience, achieve during the last year of my twenties. A bucket list to close out the decade, so to speak.

I hear the thirties will be better, that we are more secure with ourselves and happier with the dramatic, tumultuous twenties behind us. I hope so. At 20, I was unattached. At 21, I was pregnant. The next year, I was again single. When I turned 23, I was married and pregnant again. On my 24th birthday, I was unhappy. By 25, I was pregnant again, but my husband had left me. At 26, I had three children and a temporary job, but I was content with my life and discovering the person I was meant to be. At 27, I found real, honest love. And 28 brought a new marriage, a new step, a new chance for happiness.

I’m excited to see what 29 will bring on its own, but I also want to close this decade of my life out with a purpose: I want to become a better me. And when Dec. 6, 2010 arrives, I want to be ready and willing to face my thirties head-on. This will take improvements in all facets of my life – professionally and personally. By the time I’m 30, I want to be a better wife, a better mother, a better friend, a better writer, a better person in general.

It’s not that I am overly unhappy with myself, because I’m not; I’m very proud of how far I’ve come since my mid-twenties. However, there is so much potential that I’m not living up to and I want to try a little harder.

I want to improve my writing, define my style and add more adjectives and flowery language to my arsenal. I’m feeling stuck in a clear, concise rut. Newspaper reporters are generally encouraged, through AP style guidelines, to follow the KISS model. And no, we’re not talking platform boots and black-and-white face paint, we’re talking about keeping it simple (stupid). No extras, unless absolutely necessary (this is to conserve valuable space in the print product).

But in doing this, I feel I’ve slowly lost that piece of me that could describe the taste of a Granny Smith Apple in no less than 350 words (kidding, but you get my point). My ultimate inspiration, in terms of both my blog and my career, is Elizabeth from damomma.com. I’m nowhere near as funny as Liz, and I probably never will be, but I do want to find my voice. In writing her musings on motherhood, she is able to capture attention, make her readers laugh, make her readers cry and use the F word in the process (though not as much now, I kind of miss it!).

Covering a lot of crime, it’s not really necessary to have this skill; people want the gossip with those stories, they don’t want to cry. But where it counts – on the blog, in columns and in features – I want what seems to come so naturally to her. I want to be a great writer.

And other things include:

2. Become better at giving gifts.

3. Learn more about cooking, ingredients and their properties, especially. This is kind of like learning the parts of speech – you need to know how to put it all together and why.

4. Spend more time with my children and my husband. And make sure it’s quality time, not just quantity time, though that can be good, too.

5. Learn when to let things go and when to hang on for dear life. I hang on to too much and then it erupts. That’s never a good thing.

6. Organize. My life, my photos, my paperwork and especially my Tupperware cabinet.

7. Brush up on my photography skills. Experiment more, get better results.

8. Listen more, talk less.

9. Laugh. A lot.

10. Travel to a place I’ve never been. Hopefully that will be a beach somewhere. A girl can only dream, right?

11. Make dishes using eggplant and artichoke, two ingredients I’ve never used.

12. Watch more classic movies and read more classic novels. I recently watched the middle of Gone With the Wind and though I heckled the characters, I enjoyed the parts of the movie I did see. I can’t wait to watch the other two hours. I’ve also never seen Miracle on 34th Street, but I have seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (over and over and over, thanks Dad!).

13. Lose 20-25 pounds. I can do it, I just need to stop falling off the wagon. I’m back on my healthy diet, but I really need to get my butt moving again so I can burn some calories.

14. Have more girls’ nights (or days) out and entertain friends more often.

15. Taste more cheese and wine. And maybe a cranberry vodka from time to time.

16. Eat another meal at Currents. Hopefully on a day where Chef Schrier has scallops on the menu.

17. Read more novels.

18. Do more good deeds for others.

19. Become a better wife. This, unfortunately, includes doing laundry and dishes. I draw the line at matching socks, though.

20. Let my children help me more. Jaiden loves to cook, for instance, so why not help her learn? It’ll boost her self-esteem and increase our bonding time. Win-win situation.

21. Get closer to God.

22. Make pickles using my grandmother’s recipe. My son will love this.

23. Decorate my house. We’ve been here for over a year and still don’t have much of anything on the walls. Why? Because I can’t commit. I need to find a style and go with it.

24. Finish what I start.

25. Start saving money. Maybe.

26. Print photos. I don’t know why, but I never do it unless I have to (for a school project). This year I also need to have our honeymoon photo book printed and I’d like to do a photo book for each quarter of the year.

27. Stay away from drama. I need to stop letting the people who don’t matter clog my positive energy.

28. Savor the small moments, the everyday, because one day I’ll blink and the kids will be grown.

29. Learn something new every single day.

30. Love more and better. Obviously there are people in my life who mean absolutely everything to me, but I want to put more effort into showing them. Love is a verb and this will require more action, more effort, more commitment, more energy, more time, more of me. I’m up for the challenge.

I’ve been working on this list since October and I finally feel like it’s right. Because this is my thirtieth year on Earth, I chose 30 things I believe I need to work on. Not each item is earth-shattering, but I believe each and every thing, no matter how big or small, makes an impact. Just like the people in our lives.

I hope to actively work on this list over the next 11 months. On Dec. 6 we’ll take stock and see if I’ve done everything I’ve set out to do. Here’s to hoping!

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