I am thirty years old! I have BEEN looking forward to this milestone.
I turned 30 on Sunday, 15 January 2023, and celebrated in the most glamorous way possible.
Inspired by Bonang’s 30th birthday in 2017, I wanted to have a themed event, so we went with “African Royalty - We’re black and Bougie” my friends and family really understood the assignment and showed up for me! I’m so grateful. I love parties!
I'm also grateful for my life. My 20s have been AWESOME! I have LIVED my life and will continue to do so.
I took risks, got educated, lived on my own in a foreign country, got flewed out 😋, kickstarted and grew my career thus far, changed jobs often like a true older millennial, made friends, explored, discovered, learnt myself, reconnected with, started dating and got engaged to my husband to be. And I also travelled. A lot!
I’m excited about this next chapter. I remember when I was 24, I wrote a few notes to myself and called it the “Do | Be | Have” list (If you’re into woo woo LOA stuff as I am, you should know about this).
A Do Be Have list is basically things that one wants to do, become and have. I wanted to do the same for my 30th. Except, this time, I’m putting it in the public domain (because I’m an oversharer).
So, In the next decade, I will:
1. Become a wife, maybe even a good one. lol
2. Become a mother - after enjoying my 20s completely child-free. Love that for me.
3. Complete my Master's degree
4. Continue to celebrate my existence
5. Have travelled to 40 countries #40by40 (I’m at 17 now, so the pressure is getting werser)
6. Become fluent in french (not cette half baked efforts I’ve been putting in all this temps depuis jai 6 ans)
7. Achieve F.I.R.E (Follow my personal financial coach and one of Zambia’s best - Chanozya Kabaghe)
8. Write more personal pieces on my blog (like this one!)
9. Become fit. Like really fit. Like “wow are you a weight lifter kind of fit”
10. Learn how to put on Makeup really, really well (I’ve been using the same MAC powder brush that my girl Tessa got me on my 24th birthday 😂🤭at least the quality is amazing and I don’t contribute to unnecessary waste in that regard… is what I tell myself the few times a year I use that brush)
11. Grow my hair to waist length (and maybe even magically grow some edges)
12. Pursue all my interests as they arise, wholeheartedly
13. Read more African literature
14. Learn sign language (very important!!)
15. Teach my children sign language
16. Take breaks when I need them
17. Learn Portuguese
18. Not over-estimate my importance in people's lives.
I was thinking I’d take this list all the way to 30, but it was too much pressure, so I stopped where it felt natural.
I hope I can do the same in other aspects of my life, leaving things as they are, and not forcing everything to fit a certain narrative. The moment I learned to do that with relationships, my magical one came along.
Here are more pics from my magical 30th celebration.
I just realised I never blogged about what I did on my 29th birthday. For that one, I honoured my inner child at the recommendation of my life coach, Chelsea Da Gama, and I threw a birthday party fit for a 9-year-old. LOL! We had a jumping castle, we played games like musical chairs, and the only food on the menu was pizza and Fanta. Check out the pics here.
❤️❤️❤️❤️