the list

When I was little, I had big dreams of one day being able to fly. I'm not talking about flying my own airplane, I'm talking about unassisted, free form flying. My friend Leah even shared this dream with me, so much so that we tried oh-so-hard to accomplish our dream. Granted, we knew unassisted flying was out of the question. But we tried every sort of contraption we could think of. One of the funniest looking had to be us jumping off a ledge on her house holding an umbrella. Then two. We SWORE that when we held two umbrellas, we floated just a LITTLE bit longer. So of course, we were imaging what it'd be like if we had some sort of parachute or gigantic umbrella. Of course, being little girls, we couldn't get our hands on anything like that. But my absolute favorite attempt was when we tried to build a hanglider. Of course, heavy duty materials were something not easily accessible, so we had to make do with what we had - garbage bags and wooden dowels. Yes my friends, we tried VERY hard to make something that we could possibly fly with, and that was our best attempt. We put this wretched looking thing together, and would run down a hill, hoping for any amount of air time. It ultimately amounted to zero air time, but hey, you have to at least give us an A for effort, right?

As we entered the year 2006, I started thinking about that dream... I also started thinking about the list I made 2 years ago, about this time. I made a list of the things I would like to accomplish before I die. Some of them may never happen. Some of them, I can't control. But some of them are achievable. The unfortunate thing is, I lost the list. I had a hard copy of it that I had printed out and taken with me to work to hang in my cubicle. The original document was on my computer which was lost when I broke the hard drive. I no longer have a "Things I Want To Accomplish" before I die list. I was trying to remember if I posted it on my blog way back when, but I don't think I ever did, and I don't think I want to scrounge through some 200 posts to try to find it. The thing is, I don't remember all of what was on there, but I know hangliding was one of them.

Since I am no longer with a list, I thought I might just post a new one... and I thought I would share it with all of you. Like I said, some of them aren't likely to happen. Some of them I have no real control over. Some of them are MUSTS. But this is my list... It's a dream list. It's a "if I could experience life, this is how I'd do it" list.

So here goes... oh, and they're in no particular order... just as they come to mind I guess.

1.) Backpack through Europe
2.) Travel on a boat/ship up and down the coast
3.) Go hangliding/skydiving
4.) Write a book and attempt to get it published
5.) Attend the Sundance Film Festival
6.) Get married & have kids
7.) Sit in on a live show taping (Conan or Ellen = FUN!)
8.) Create a short film
9.) Learn to speak Hebrew
10.) Learn to surf
11.) Visit NYC
12.) Live in a big city (even if it's only for a short time)
13.) Take a road trip from one coast to the other
14.) Open a Children's Bookstore
15.) Act in a play (something other than a church production)
16.) Be an aunt (I'd make such a cool one, I swear!)
17.) Work on film set (anyone know of any PA positions?)
18.) Go on a missions trip to Africa
19.) Develop a good relationship with a charity organization
20.) Learn to sew
21.) Go to Austrailia/New Zealand (maybe live there?)
22.) Have an entire book of the bible memorized
23.) Meet Joaquin Phoenix (hahaha... had to put it on there)
24.) Work with M. Night Shayamalan
25.) Go whitewater rafting

Ok, I'm sure I could come up with more, but that will do for now. And I just noticed how many of them have to do with going somewhere... Can we just say I have an immense love and desire to travel?

Anyway, some of these were on my original list, and some are probably new. I know that I have one that was on there before that isn't anymore - attending the X-Games. I remember when I originally created the list, I hadn't attended the X-Games. Now I have... Let's hope a couple of these come to fruition in 2006...