There comes a point in your life when you realise that the hopes and dreams you had as a child or a teenager may not come true. That's not to say that your life sucks, just that all those years ago you didn't really know what you wanted or what life would give you in return.
I have always wanted to do the 'marriage and kids' thing. When I was a young teenager I thought I'd have it by 20. Then University came along and this got pushed out to 25. As I turned 25 I in turn moved this idea forward again to 30 and now as I approach my 29th birthday I realise to make it a reality I'd have to rush through the whole process and that's not going to happen.
This is not something that I am sad or bitter about. I have really enjoyed my 20's and have had some amazing opportunities but the thing that I wish I could have is a big party - a chance to catch up with the people that mean so much and play an important role in my life so about a year ago I decided that if I wasn't going to be married by 30 then turning 30 would be the big party.
After making that decision, I did quite a lot of thinking about what type of party it would be - would there be live music, would it be fancy dress (musical theatre themed of course!), would it be for charity? And then my brain really got thinking.
I've always done a lot of fundraising and volunteering but at the time that this 'party' idea came into my head I had just finished an amazing summer of volunteering at the London 2012 Olympics and I knew that the party somehow had to be about giving back. Would I ask guests to make a donation to charity rather than bringing presents?
And that's where the first spark of 3 for 30 came from.
Why not, instead of just raising money on one night, raise money throughout the year and have the party to celebrate a year of fundraising and volunteering?
The ideas over the next few months got a bit out of hand - one of the initial ideas was to try to raise £30,000 over the year to match the age I was due to turn. However, being realistic was the key. I had to maintain whatever I decided upon for the full year and it had to be achievable.
Bouncing ideas off a select few friends the final plan started to form and here it is.
From November 25th 2013 I will plan and hold events, there will be sponsorship requests and hopefully some fun activities for people to get involved in. I have one opportunity almost fully planned and notes for many others in a secret notebook.
I have chosen the three charities that I will support over the year. It took a lot of deliberation as I wanted them to really mean something to me personally and I wanted them to really use the money that I raised. (I'll explain my reasoning behind them in another blog post.)
Over the year I hope to raise a minimum of £3,000 per charity and then we can all celebrate together at the end of the year.
I am grateful for all of the support I've already received for this and for all of the support I will no doubt receive over the next twelve months. It will be a great adventure and I can't wait for it to start!
