Last Friday I turned thirty. The big three oh.

Unsurprisingly, hitting this landmark made me get all nostalgic and reflective, looking back on all the things that I’ve done in my twenties. As I went to bed on the last night of my twenties, a string of memories ran through my head…

From riding my first half pipe to working (somewhat disastrously) in an internet café in Queenstown; from setting up The DoNation to teaching groups of twenty 7 year olds to ski; from cycling to Morocco to climbing the rooftops of Trail.

Holding my niece for the first time; reading at my brothers wedding; having blood transfusions in Vancouver; presenting to 100s of business leaders in a packed conference hall; camping under the stars on an island by the M25.

From rolling a 45-seater yellow school bus off a mountain road in Canada to graduating from my MSc in the Royal Albert Hall. Kissing a few boys; weighing rhino dung at Edinburgh Zoo; partying in a cow onesie; interviewing interns; learning the basics of coding. Dancing in fields, in sweaty underground gigs and, most often, in my bedroom. Growing my first tomatoes and making blackberry jam. Learning to live with an electronic pancreas; going to the theatre; skating on frozen lakes in Cumbria; and spending many, many nights gossiping over bottles of wine.

Why am I sharing this? Well something struck me when thinking of all these fantastic memories: not one of them was based on stuff.

I’ll admit it, I have bought a hell of a lot of stuff in my twenties – from ipods to ski boots; saucepans to picture frames – I’m a typical western consumer. But my memories are not filled with buying stuff, but doing stuff. And they were fantastic memories that made my twenties so happy.

So when I saw Harriet post this image to our Facebook page today, I thought ‘spot on!’.

Go on – get out there and do stuff, don’t just go buy stuff.

And here’s hoping that it’s true what people say – that your thirties are even better than your twenties…