I don’t go to the library. But my dad goes religiously, while I overpay for shiny new books at Barnes & Noble and trendy bookstores with creaky staircases and colorful shelves. Even though I appreciate libraries, I rarely go and haven’t been to one since graduating from college in May. My dad always picks up books for me when I’m home. And since I’m now home indefinitely, he occasionally supplements my “to be read” pile with library books. Most of the ones he brings back for me have titles like “Finding Your First Job for Dummies”, and “Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You’ll Love to Do”. Some of which I’ve found helpful, and some of which I couldn’t bring myself to open. Either way, I keep getting the not so subtle hint: I need a job.
As a fresh 22-year-old, when my dad brought home a book of essays called 30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too by Marina Shifrin, I had to crack open the cover. Shifrin makes a list of 30 things she wants to do before she turns 30. Each chapter comes with an item from the list, a hilarious tale of what she did to get there, and served with the cherry on top: a lesson. Like every other library book that I didn’t pick for myself, I planned on only reading a couple pages. But I quickly found that I couldn’t stop laughing at the stories Shifrin tells with a constant undertone of comedy. I even retold a couple of her stories to my friend, obviously losing the charming humor in my delivery while I laughed through every word. As a former aspiring stand up comedian, she reiterates an important lesson in life. That it’s important to laugh, at yourself, at the situations we get stuck in, at our mistakes, and basically at everything. One thing she takes seriously though is her goals, and the list of 30 she writes with a friend after downing bottles of two buck chuck wine are not to be messed with. They agree on, “No rules. No impossibilities. Only a timeline”.
For Shifrin, it doesn’t matter how she got to each goal, just as long as she got there. She writes after riding a bike across the Brooklyn Bridge as a visitor instead of a city dweller, “it doesn’t matter how or why you accomplish it – the process feels good regardless”. Spoiler alert: she managed to complete all 30 items. Even number 30 and chapter 30 is WRITE A BOOK, which she ironically writes, “Please flip to page one”. Finding the punchline or the comedic element is vital to Shifrin’s admirable stories of living abroad in Taiwan, living off of canned chickpeas in Brooklyn, living as the daughter of Russian immigrants, and just living in general. She even went viral after posting a video of herself dancing to Kanye West’s “Gone” in her former office with text scrolling across it explaining that she’s quitting her job. Reading Marina’s writing will literally make you feel like you’re chatting with her in a bar, listening to her stories after having way too much to drink.
She uses her writing to entertain and inspire. With dreams of being a comedian, Shifrin realizes that her dream is harder than she thought, and may not ever happen. It’s clear that the page is her stage. Instead of fumbling through 5 minutes stand up gigs, she tells stories, funny stories, throughout 312 pages of pure gold. She writes, “But part of growing up is readjusting your expectations to fit your new life,” and explains that there’s so such thing as a dream job, that we can only find ideal jobs. Jobs that fulfill your dreams about 60% of the time, that meet most of our expectations but maybe not all of them. Not long after I realized that this book was special, hilarious, and inspiring did I make a list of my own. I borrowed a couple from Marina and wrote down 30 life goals to make before turning 30, which gives me 8 years to complete them. Unlike most library books, I’m actually disappointed I don’t own this one forever. But that’s the best thing about reading books that force you to do something. You remember them, you carry the author’s stories with you, and then you create your own stories. I’d recommend this book to anyone, not just people in their 20s. Marina’s bold demeanor and comical writing is nothing short of entertaining.
such sweet things 