My Old List

While cleaning my office this week, I found this list that I made more than ten years ago. It’s on a random legal pad, with no title, but what it is – is obvious. I vaguely remember writing it, on an airplane, flying between Chicago and Tampa shortly after we got married. It’s a laundry list of all the things, at that point in time, that I wanted to do in my life. It was funny to find it, and amazing that I haven’t seen it before now with the moves from both Riverside and then Naperville. It definitely feels like someone in her mid-twenties jotted this down. Most of the things I still want to do – some don’t seem remotely critical at this point in my life. More importantly, I have accomplished several. It may not be a ton of items knocked off, but when you consider what they are – they might just be the most significant ones!

I think it needs a revision, or some additions – one day soon I’ll get to that. For now, I thought it might be fun to see. In no important order except the one I wrote them in, here they are:

Graduate from college
Take my mom on an all expense paid trip
Run 10 miles
Be in the best possible physical shape
Travel through Europe – all over
Go to Australia
Go to Key West
Go to Alaska
Do some type of mission work in another country
Have a collection of antiques
Grow a successful garden
Swim with dolphins
Ride in a hot air balloon
Slalom on water skis
Ski a “black”
Refurbish an old house
Write something that gets published
Read the classics
Have a child
Nurse my child
Own a couple of horses
Learn to play an instrument / piano?
Have one moment in time where I can truly see that everyone I love is happy

Knowing that I’ve met some of these goals makes me excited to add to the list. It’s never too late to have a new dream – that’s certainly something I want my kids to believe. I have totally shared my excitement about my writing work with the girls and I think that they really get it. For years, it’s been easy to NOT try and write anything – from the fear of rejection to complaining about the lack of time in my life – time has passed. I have felt such passion and ownership in the work I’ve done and contacts I’ve made – part of me wishes I’d done it long ago. I swear, I may be more tired, but I feel younger!

So this list is a reminder for me to keep at it, keep dreaming up new dreams, and keep hammering away at the older ones. And the cool thing is, if our kids always see us beginning new things and following our dreams, hopefully they’ll always do that too.