I stumbled upon the Mighty Girl site through some link love on Twitter, and I am enamoured with Maggie Mason, she of Mighty Girl.
On her site, she has created a ‘Life List’ of all the things she hopes to achieve throughout her lifetime. I think that’s a choice idea, because sometimes I’d rather not fail, so I don’t bother to put myself (and my feelings) on the line to even try. Especially when it comes to the big stuff where you can really fail. Plus, even as this big birthday looms large, I really don’t know what it is I want.
So why not tackle head-on my indecisiveness and ability to gloss over that which I have not had the courage or opportunity to do? Plus, by putting it out there in the universe, I will be held accountable: no chickening out! I want to be the most focused and best version of me that I can be.
So here’s my version:
MY LIFE LIST
- Visit India for the Holi Festival
- Eat better, and eat more socially and environmentally responsibly
- Ride bikes around Gotland, an island off the coast of Sweden when my Mum’s side originates from
- Take in a match at the Nou Camp in Barcelona
- Make at least one day a month an ‘anniversary’
- Make one night a week ‘Date Night’
- Start a legitimate crafty business
- Spend Christmas 2010 back with my family in Sydney
- Be the only person on a desert island (for a few hours)
- Host a fabulous birthday party for someone with all the trimmings
- Become a dual citizen
- Learn how to surf
- Live downtown in San Francisco
- Make a felt and button bouquet for a bride
- Have a big bay window with a window seat to sit at read in the warm sun
- Learn how to play: guitar, bass, cello
- Sail somewhere on a boat
- Become fluent in German
- Live in Germany
- Hike up either: Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Everest Base Camp
- Have our own place to call home
- Mount a map of the world to foam and plot our next trip
- Become an ‘expert’ in something
- Fly on one of the world’s most dangerous airlines
- Be lucky enough to have David Bromstad of Color Splash come in a makeover my home in a whimsical blue and green colour scheme
- Make a cake/cupcakes from scratch (including the icing!)
- Compete in a triathlon
- Drive home in a silver Porsche Boxter one day, and throw James his new keys
- Take traditional tea in a Japanese tea house
- Go to a Gaelic Football match
- Go to a Hurling match
- Observe and write as the world go by for an afternoon in a French Cafe
- Plant and tend a small garden
- Have my own studio space for my crafty and writing endeavours
- Buy a beachfront property to live and work from in Thailand
- Write a song
- Go tubing down the Nam Song River in Vang Vieng, Laos
- Borrow Cousin Charlotte for a day and go on adventures: to the Zoo, enjoy a Charlotte-friendly treat down on Pier 39 watching the seals, do crafty stuff
- Sit for a whimsical portrait in an appropriate ‘fit’ for my face: The white doll-faced look of the silent movie era? A 1940s pin-up like the one on front of the Memphis Belle? A mod icon?
- Go pick fruit: berries, apples, lemons, oranges, pears
- Find a new group of friends after my new ones leave in a month or two (one of the downsides to living the expat lifestyle…)
- Have a family portrait taken — just the two of us
- Go camping in Yosemite
- See my husband’s name on a flyer as the headlining comedian
- Try Nackt wandern (you only live once!)
- Bottle my own wine
- Speak to my Aunt more
- Sleep in a treehouse
- Plant citrus trees (and be around the watch them grow)
- Get eaten alive by bedbugs in Vientiane
- Go pick my own flowers in a field
- Learn how to make sushi
- Have James arrange a surprise for me unexpectedly
- Host my own High Tea with fresh sandwiches, pots of tea and good conversation
- Go on safari in Africa
- Take more of an interest in styling myself
- Gather the courage (despite my horrendous physical aversion to them since school) to try brightly coloured tights
- Get married again! In Vegas! On a quiet beach in Hawaii at sunset! In sunny South America whilst doing the tango! At Frankfurt Airport in Germany! In the Swedish countryside near a red-barn! Atop the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland! Back home in Australia! Under the Aurora Borealis! Atop the Eiffel Tower!
- Become a mentor to a local kid
- Visit Pebble Beach in the flesh
- Have Josh relocate from Chicago to San Francisco and achieve what he wants out of life in sunny California
- Write a book
- Make the SF Stars Pacific Coast Netball League team
- Institute a ‘special’ day of the week, much like Maggie’s Chocolate and Champagne Wednesdays
I’m actually surprised with just how many things I came up with, considering I’m generally rather indecisive. I plan on trying to do as many of those as I can, as well as adding new things that come to mind. I’ll house my new dreams in a Life List page, you can find up in the top right hand corner of this site (or here).
What would be on your Life List? What are types of things that inspire you and that you hope to achieve in your lifetime?
xTRP
The Rebecca Project 