You can find the first five here, and the five after that right here. You can find a really cute bunny over here.
11. Spend a month (or three) on the road. Like what The Corner of the Internet is doing right now. I want to be able to stop and stay for a few days if I really like somewhere. I would love to do this in the Southwest—pretty Arizona sunrises, gorgeous New Mexico sunsets. Mmm.
12. Get a degree. I would like to have proof of how smart I am at some point. I’d like to be in school by this time next year—which means I’ll need a solid idea of what I want to do at that point. Is Underwater Basketweaving a thing? Feel free to suggest potential majors.
13. Make a giant deal about events. I adore Busy Bee Lauren’s approach to birthday parties—they’re such big, hilarious, super-fun looking celebrations. I mean, look at this one. Or this one. Or this one, for sure. It’s easy to get busy and forget about stuff like that, but I want to make special events events. Maybe by the time I’m 25 I’ll be excellent at it. (Note: I was going to say ‘a pro’ but then I threw up so I had to erase that. I hope you appreciate my avoidance of that phrase as much as I do.)
14. Take more pictures. I definitely don’t want to get so caught up in taking pictures when I do exciting things that I forget to actually be there—like “look how much fun I’m having right now! Look, I’m smiling!” I would like to have more (good!) pictures later. Which will easy, because right now my picture average is like, three per month. I feel like I don’t really have a record of what’s happened in the last 2-3 years, even though I got to do a lot of cool stuff. And I get so drooly when I see pictures from Taza’s blog—she is so great at really getting the whole story of whatever happened through just a few pictures! So I’d like to buy a good camera soon…learn how to use it…and then actually use it. A lot.
15. Learn how to cook a few things really well. I think everyone has that “well, one day I’d like to learn how to cook” thing in the back of their minds, and I definitely do. Problem is that I’m impatient and sort of flaky and a general “learn to cook” goal will probably go unfinished. But what I can do is learn how to cook a couple of things—super well. This always happens after I watch Julie & Julia. I’ve been collecting delicious looking food on Pinterest, and I think we’re getting close to me actually cooking something. If anyone wants to come over in a chef hat with a spatula and cook things in my kitchen for me, however, I would be willing to change this goal to “eat things that someone else cooks really well.” Especially in a chef hat. Ahem, Mags.
20 before 25, Part II
I started a list of twenty things I wanted to accomplish before I turn twenty-five. You can see the first five right here.
6. Go line dancing. I spent four months in Texas. My boyfriend still lives there. It has to happen.
7. Eat dinner on a rooftop. This one will be really easy to accomplish, because the restaurant I’m going to be working at here in Minneapolis has a rooftop bar. Still, I’ve always wanted to eat at one, and I never have!
8. Run a 5k. I’ve honestly never run one. I ran track in high school, but I didn’t do cross (probably because I hadn’t run three “real” consecutive miles until last year.) Luckily, the Color Run is coming to Minneapolis in July!
9. Go to New York. I’ve never been there! Adam and I were thiiiis close to taking a trip for my birthday, but we decided to wait til we could spend more than a weekend there. I don’t think I need to explain why I want to visit New York.
10. Stay in a Treehouse. That rascal Pinterest gave me the idea, and since then I’ve been obsessed with taking a trip and staying in one. They actually have cabin-like treehouses you can rent at a myriad of places, and I definitely want to go to one. (P.S. Is it still the rule that you bring questionable magazines and junk food up to treehouses?)
I’ve been really inspired and excited and adventurous feeling lately.
Give me a backpack and a pair of sensible shoes, please, I’ve got things to do. I’ve never really felt a lack of inspiration or want to do adventurous and exciting things, but I have felt little lulls here and there. It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday things, think about working every day and signing up for fitness classes and putting gas in your car so you can drive places and making sure you get to bed on time so you can wake up feeling refreshed. That’s fine, sometimes. I just have no desire to go long stretches of just “everyday” living. I want to make sure I’m never too complacent or too content with the way things are that I stop feeling so excited and thrilled at the start of every day for whatever that day brings me.
My 21st birthday is exactly a month from now—which sort of feels like the beginning of something. I am so excited for so many things, and I want to stay excited.
So between now and then (every week or so) I’ll post part of my list of twenty things I want to do before I’m twenty-five. I’d love to see your lists, or any suggestions you have!
1. Have a picnic under a picturesque (let’s pause real quick to note that I wrote the word picturesque without having to spellcheck it.) picnicking tree. A picnicking tree, for those who aren’t familiar, is big tree with a wide canopy that is isolated from any other trees and preferably on top of a hill. There’s one in my hometown that gave me the idea, but I think it’s on private property. Does anyone have any information on filing a formal please-let-me-picnic-under-your-tree request?
2. Work at a cupcake bakery. Not a cake bakery or a bread bakery. For some reason, I want to specifically work at a cupcake bakery, if just for one day. It’s some sort of dream of mine, and I’ve probably had it since I was four (or whatever age being a “cupcake princess” is the ideal.)
3. Hike in Colorado or any other place famed for its hiking trails. Not the day kind of hiking, the pack everything up in a backpack including a sleeping bag and dinner and sleep outside for two or three days hiking. Any suggestions?
4. Eat a steak with my hands. Veganism or plant-based diet aside, this is still a goal of mine. I want, so badly, to wear a very pretty dress to a very nice restaurant, ask very nicely for a steak, and then eat it entirely with my hands. I just can’t shake it: I’ve got to do it.
5. Sleep in the forest. Sleeping in the forest would be pretty easy, of course. What I want to do is sleep in the middle of a field or the woods on an actual bed with pillows and fitted sheets. I want to haul a queen-sized bed to the woods, and then sleep in it. When I was little I wanted my room to be in the woods, and this is getting that for one night (or however many nights I can until the forecast calls for rain.)
