I had intended then to do quarterly check-ins, but the third month came and went. And then the fourth month. So now we're at the fifth month, and so I'm finally checking in.
With 7 months to go, I have completed the following:
17) Do 40 Days of Water for Blood:Water Mission. (I raised $116, and Kyle matched it!)
19) Go hiking. (A day trip earlier this spring. There are pics on Facebook!)
20) Spend a day alone, not at home. (This was one of the most profound things I've done in a while. The day before I did it, when I realized what was going to happen the next day, I was bitter about it. I was up in East Texas, and I was annoyed that I was going to accomplish the goal there rather than in Houston, or some other fun town. But in forcing myself to leave the hotel, I found out that you can't judge a town by its region or by its stereotypes. I wandered around Nacogdoches, finding sushi (yum), antique shops galore, and a whole new appreciation for small-town Texas. It turned out to be a great day, and one in which I really felt free to just be me, which was the whole point in putting it on the list.)
These are in progress:
1) Run a marathon. (Not literally in progress, but I'm training, and I've decided on my race!)
3) Read all 100 of Modern Library’s top novels. (The 5th out of the 100 is in my bag...admittedly, there's no way I'm going to complete this in 7 months. BUT I'm making progress, and maybe I'll tack on an extra couple of years to complete the goal.)
8) Lose 20 pounds.
These are probably going to be stricken from the list (this year):
2) Donate my hair to Locks of Love. (Based on recent experience, I recommend NEVER PERMING YOUR HAIR. Why did I do it? It's a long, long story that made sense at the time, and now, six months later, makes me want to shave my head. Thus, it will be cut and will not be long enough.)
10) Go back to school. (The plan was design school. The current plan is gainful employment. I may take a class or two this fall. But it's no longer a goal per se.)
11) Build a dog house or bed for Bennet. (I don't need to anymore. Remember this?)
14) Take a photo every day. (I'm embarrassingly bad at this. I went four months without taking a single photo. No joke. So we're just going to let it slide.)
So what's left?
4) Learn how to swim.
5) Go on a wine tour.
6) Pay off my credit card debt.
7) Launch my Etsy shop & register my domain name.
9) Learn how to ballroom dance.
12) Commit to sustainable fashion: make or thrift all that I buy.
13) Start and keep a (real) blog (about more than just my rants/funnies).
15) Go horseback riding.
16) Fall in love.
18) Remember the Alamo (...and go visit it).
21) See the sun rise and set on the same day.
22) Learn how to surf.
23) Read the Bible all the way through.
24) Learn Spanish (oh, that my college courses had done any good).
25) Simplify.
What remains are mostly experiences that I just need to plan and do. Being broke and busy hasn't been extraordinarily helpful. But there's still time.
This weekend I finished reading Donald Miller's book, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." It was in reading it that I realized what I was doing with this list back in January -- I was laying the groundwork for an incredible story. I was saying, "I'm not content with just being. I want to do something great." Maybe I shouldn't have taken on so many things at once, but maybe that's the impetus I needed to do any of them. Sure, some just aren't going to happen. But that's part of the beauty of the list. My failures balance my successes, making them that much more awesome!
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