life list

I began this list of goals in college, and it has just kept on growing ever since.  New items appear from time to time; I try to add them just as fast as I can cross them off.  This is not a “bucket list” or a “things to do before I die” list, both of which have become so very popular in the last few years.  I don’t want to focus on the moment when everything gets completed, but enjoy the process of adding and crossing out, of the flows and shifts, the modulations of life.  Half the fun is contemplating the ones I haven’t accomplished yet.   Some get erased as they become less important; others remain for the sheer frivolity of the fancies they once were.  Some seem fabulously egotistical, especially in the prospect of their crossing out.  Some are funny, some profound, some just downright strange.  It’s a list of dreams, a list of goals.  I have purposefully left off some important “ambitions” — get married, have children — partly because those life goals are almost too weighty, too large, for a little list like this.  It’s roughly arranged into categories, but there’s quite a bit of crossover.  I’ve thought about altering the structure, but I don’t; I want to keep it true to its original inception: a list created by an overly ambitious and inspired 19-year-old.

Skills

• Learn to play the guitar
• Get a French minor
• Learn to speak French fluently
• Paint a room (or a wall)
• Take a photography class
• Take a cooking class (in Paris?)
• Take an intensive French class in Paris
• Learn to dance (take classes)
• Learn to knit (and knit something)
• Learn to ski
• Learn to ice skate
• Take a writing class
• Draw or paint something decent
• Take an international relations class

Accomplishments

• Publish a book
• Write a novel
• Publish an article in a print publication
• Publish an article in a major magazine
• Publish an article in an academic journal
• Graduate summa cum laude
• Get a Master’s degree
• Get accepted to a top PhD programme
• Get a PhD (from a top university)
• Be asked to deliver a lecture
• Be considered an expert at something
• Have a job I love
• Work for a magazine (2007 Southern Living Magazine)
• Publish a book of essays
• Teach a college class (Fall 2010 at Duke)
• Read all the books on Clifton Fadiman’s The Lifetime Reading Plan list

Experiences

• Ride in a hot air balloon
• Take a backstage Disney tour (Keys to the Kingdom)!
• Learn to ride a horse
• Ride a horse western-style
• Be in the audience of Ellen’s show (a college item.  Still might be fun!  Or could be supplemented now with John Stewart…)
• Tour a movie or a TV set
• Stay in a four- or five-star hotel.  And pay!
• Watch the sun rise on a beach (with bare feet)
• Hang-glide
• Canoe
• Sky-dive
• Ride a SeaDoo
• Fly first class (27th birthday on BA between Bridgetown and London)
• Be flown by my brother
• Eat in a restaurant with more than 5 courses
• Ride in a helicopter
• Eat at a restaurant where you have to sit on the floor
• Own a business
• Go on safari
• Work at Disney World, if just for one day
• Give blood
• Go backstage at a concert
• Have a house built for me (i.e. work with an architect)
• Climb a mountain (or at least part of one!)
• Have a fire/grill picnic on the beach
• Be in a sitcom audience
• Leave a note in a library book
• Drive to a remote place on a summer’s night and watch the stars
• Get dressed up and have a Girls’ Night Out with a big group of friends in a fun city
• Meet a President
• Go on a blind date
• Attend a basketball game
• Attend a professional baseball game
• Throw a surprise birthday party
• Have a surprise party thrown for me - L’s early birthday brunch 2010
• Take a Segway tour
• Kiss under mistletoe
• Swim with dolphins
• Go to a recording studio
• Work or be on a movie set
• Ride a train in the States
• Grow my own vegetables
• Meet Anne Fadiman
• Go to a drive-in movie theater
• Go to a spa
• Live by the sea
• Host a big family Christmas at my own home
• Go to the Academy Awards, the Grammy’s, and the CMA Awards.
• Live in Paris for at least a month

Goals

• Vote in a U.S. election
• Plant a tree
• Volunteer in a political campaign
• Be financially independent of my parents
• Own furniture
• Own a house
• Buy a new car
• Buy an item of clothing without concern for the cost
• Get a U.S. credit card
• Have my Dad walk me down the aisle
• Make a charitable donation that really makes a difference

Travel

• Get a job in America
• Live in England in my own place
• Live in France
• Drive through more than two states in a single trip
• Take a real road trip across the U.S.
• Visit all 50 states (see below)
• Visit every continent
• Buy food at a Paris market and cook a meal
• Visit all Disney theme parks (California, Florida, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo)
• Take a road trip through Europe
• Eurail/Britrail Europe
• Buy a book from Shakespeare and Company in Paris
• Buy a book from The Strand bookshop in New York City
• Buy a book from City Lights in San Francisco
• Tour the White House
• Visit the Library of Congress
• Visit the Smithsonian
• Drive Route 66
• See the Northern Lights
• Have a picnic on Pont des Arts
• Take a road trip with no predetermined destination
• See New England in the Fall
• Take my Dad to the Maldives
• Watch Illuminations from the Breathless
• Stay at the Waldorf Astoria
• Stay in one of Travel & Leisure’s top 10 hotels
• Go to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival
• Go to London or New York or Sydney on New Years’ Eve

Places

Cities:

• New York
• Jerusalem
• Quebec City
• Tokyo
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Charleston
• Go back to San Francisco
• St. Petersburg
• Prague
• Venice
• Rome
• Washington, D.C.
• Melbourne
• Istanbul
• Athens
• Marrakech

Countries etc. (in addition to those above.  This is by no means exclusive; I want to see the world.  But these are perhaps highest on the list):

• Africa (including Egypt and sub-Saharan)
• Spain
• Ireland
• Australia
• Monaco
• Belgium
• Switzerland
• Wales
• Mexico
• Brazil
• Greece
• Japan

States (29 and counting…)

• Alabama ~ Lived in Birmingham, Jan-July 2007
• Alaska
• Arizona ~ Visited the Grand Canyon with my family on vacation
• Arkansas ~ Drove through from Nashville to Dallas, March 2009
• California ~ Visited Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Palm Springs on several family vacations
• Colorado ~ Visited the Rockies with my family
• Connecticut
• Delaware ~ Visited July 2010
• District of Columbia ~ Visited for the first time with USM’s Honors College, 2004
• Florida ~ Multiple family vacations from a young age
• Georgia ~ Visted when young with my family; multiple visits to Atlanta since
• Hawaii ~ Vacation with M, December 2008
• Idaho
• Illinois ~ Visited Chicago when young with family; again alone in January 2000; drove through south Sept 2009
• Indiana ~ Stayed in Evansville, Sept 2009
• Iowa ~ Conference in Iowa City, April 2009
• Kansas
• Kentucky ~ Bought a lottery ticket across state line in 2008!  Drove through from Nashville to St Louis in Sept, 2009
• Louisiana ~ Frequent visits to New Orleans while living in MS, 2001-2004
• Maine
• Maryland ~ Visited July 2010
• Massachusetts ~ Visited Boston with M, July 2009
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi ~ Lived in Hattiesburg, 2001-2004
• Missouri ~ Stayed in St Louis, Sept 2009
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada ~ Stayed in Las Vegas with parents on vacation; visited later with friends for a concert
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey ~ Drove to Princeton with M, Feb 2009
• New Mexico
• New York ~ Visited with M, Nov-Dec 2007
• North Carolina ~ Live in Durham, NC, 2007 – present
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania ~ Visited Philadelphia Feb 2009
• Rhode Island~ Visited Brown, April 2007
• South Carolina ~ Drove through from Atlanta to Durham, July 2007
• South Dakota
• Tennessee ~Frequent stays with M!
• Texas ~ San Antonio and Austin for Southern Living stories, Spring 2007.  Dallas in March, 2009.
• Utah
• Vermont ~ stayed in Burlington, November 2010; drove up to Montreal
• Virginia ~ Stayed near D.C. in 2004
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming