30 Years in 30 Days - Cinema's personal impact

So for something overall a little different here on Cinebriated (being that I’m posting something unrelated to movies or spirits… let alone something at all), yet for me specifically, this exercise does indirectly relate to the movie subject matter.

Let’s just get this elephant out of the way:  I recently* turned 30!!! 

*recently apparently means 11 months ago… which arguably mean I’m now well into my thirties...

In anticipation of this milestone, I proceeded to embark on an exercise wherein each day for 30 days up ‪until August 24th (aka the big day) I wrote about a year of my life: what I remember, what I learned, and what I’ve recalled accomplishing overall.  This started with the year of my birth (Year 1) which you’d expect to be lacking in content, but it surprising set some standards I still see today.

As I got closer to the big day I started to lack in my efforts reporting on years 28, 29 and 30, but a few weeks after the milestone I finally caught up.  I've since reevaluated these notes/years in an effort to learn from them.

Two points that stuck out from the beginning that seem to be constants include:

• Travel: at age 0.95 there exists video footage taken by my folks of me in Pioneer Park in Walla Walla, WA, walking away from the camera.  As they continue recording and commenting on the marvel (“look at Ed go!”) they realize I’m getting further and further away from them. I think I just wanted to see what was going on downtown that day... and explore

• Cinema: I was supposedly a noisy kid and my parents usually just accepted it.  However after watching Back to the Future on Betamax, they noticed I was completely mesmerized.  After attempting to repeat the effect with other films, they realized only a time machine built out of a DeLorean would capture my imagination, at least at the time.  Nevertheless, this was I believe the starting point for my love affair with cinema

Now I was thinking I should put all my personal info in this post, but that could be utterly ridiculous as you would lack the context to understand all the details, be bored out of your minds and possible slightly disturbed by my ramblings.  Instead, I thought I would give you some general observations I had an maybe even convince you (Mom of the potential usefulness of the exercise).  I didn't anticipate this helping anyone besides myself, but thought it would be worth sharing as anyone at any age could try this in an effort to reflect on their life up until a certain point.  Also many of my contempararies are still going through the process of turning 30, so maybe this will assist.  I see it helping in the following ways:

• Guidance: providing an understanding of where you've been, and where you're going.  It can help to understand what you really appreciate, or what you should definitely avoid

• Personality: learn more about who you are from an outside perspective.  This can give you the chance to accentuate things you might like, or diminsh traits that aren't so welcome.  Of course, maybe you're the way you are for a reason and shouldn't jump to immedietly change necessarily 

• Growth: we all want growth in finances and wealth, but do we ever look at ourselves?  Sometimes they come together but not always.  If you haven’t been growing personally, what is the problem?

• Nostalgia: remembering old times isn’t so bad, and you may want to rekindle friendships or build your relationship with people currently active in your life

Out of all this, I’ve taken to heart that I should focus my endeavors on travel and cinema as best as possible.  

How will I use this...That year 1 constant has to be tested more: travel and cinema.  Better question: will you use it?