Out from the crowd ...and proud!

Irony is definitely not dead

I've held back from telling anyone about what is in the list I have made of things to do before I'm 30 (apart from a few friends) until 2007. Well, we are now in 2007 - I can't believe it - so I will start by saying happy new year to anyone who happens to stumble across my blog.

I will first say that the plan is not to achieve everything on my list by my 30th birthday. I've picked another date a couple of months later to want to have achieved everything by (that I got by looking at some recent trends and making a few weird calculations with them). For those who are interested, the date I came up with is May 5th 2017.

As I mentioned before, I do not have an average list of things to do before I'm 30. I do not plan to go backpacking in the Far East. I do not plan to go bungee jumping. I do not plan to go sky diving. I'm not that way inclined. Most of the things on my list involve some kind of community service. I set out to make a positive difference to the most number of people and not to go to as many countries as possible or do as many extreme sports as possible.

As it stands at the moment, there is only one part of my plan that does not take into consideration the greater good of anyone else. That will happen next year and is also the only date not subject to amendment. Yes, I've decided to include "turn 21" on the list of things to do before I'm 30. At least I'm not innumerate - I know that 21 comes before 30.

That, however, is not the point. I'm not restricting myself to one drunken night out in the next 10 years. It is just that the very last thing on my list - by which time I will actually be 30 (assuming I have my dates right) - is not really the sort of thing I could do before I turn 21.

Doing loads of random community service is not my new year's resolution for 2007 - I gave up on them a few years ago when I decided that I couldn't be bothered and I always failed anyway. I'm not intending to fail with any of the things on the list, though do know that the odds are stacked against me in some of the things - particularly the last one. There are also a few things that I know I would really like to do but don't know if I should do - a sabbatical for example as it would take up a whole year and would require a great deal of commitment.

So, what on earth has all this got to do with irony, I hear you ask. When I first thought about this in November, I discussed it with a few friends at uni. They were supportive and even seemed to know my eventual aim before I did. That was weird for me but not the weirdest part of that day. I gave a speech to my friends about what I was intending to do in some distant future (that I have actually since brought forward by about 10-12 years) that was more inappropriate than something else I did earlier on the same day - turning up at an SSLC meeting with a little bit of a hangover following Top Banana on the previous night. The gist of this speech was:

I'm sick of always only representing other people's best interests. It is about time I considered what was in my best interests.
...
A bit of waffle about how I enjoyed representing everyone else's best interests when it was appropriate.
...
I'm going to stand for Parliament.

My friends offered their support and informed me that they had known all along. They didn't seem to care about how I had started my speech. I actually think that they were pleased that one of us had decided to take something that had started in the middle of October as a bit of light-hearted fun a bit more seriously rather than pleased that the resident Conservative wants to be an MP in some distant future.

Anyway, as another friend advised me in December, I'd better get started writing my victory speech. According to my calculations, I have only 10 1/2 years left.

(Thinks for a little while)

Though, I'm quite a last minute person. I think I'll leave it until about ...

(Thinks for a little while again)

... 2017?

posted by Average guy on the street @ 4:45 pm