43 Things

I was a camp counselor in college for the Sally Ride Science Camp for Girls. It was on of the hardest experience of my life. I had to call on patience, sympathy, kindness, and confidence that I thought I had but that was never put to any real kind of test until I had to be dorm mom for adolescent girls frought with a tender combination of hormones, angst, fear, hope, dreams, and desires - both aspirational and sexual.

I made them make a list of 100 things they would want to do in life. Some of these were in the tone of "I want to meet Orlando Bloom." And others were in the tone of "I want to discover a new solar system." I won't be so naive or preacherish as to say that those two kinds of statements ever came from the same girl.

One of the hardest parts about being a camp mom that summer was looking at how little and how much I had grown between the ages of 12 and 22. Or even now, a few years after 22 - I have changed so much, yet also so little. At 12, I had dreams, but it was more like I had forever to fulfill them. At 22, I had dreams, and I felt like I was about to embark on them. I believe that the one thing that those 12-year-olds should always have was dreams. I believed that they should all be useful people in some huge way. And now, at 26, I know I forgot for a little while that dreams can come true. But I've also learned that dreams don't have to involve changing the world. Not that they can't.

Here's the beginning of a list of things that I want to do at some point in my life. I'll keep adding to it. And it's in no particular order of priority or timeline.

I want to...

1. go to Peru with my roommates
   
2. start a company that solves a problem
   
3. be a bridesmaid
   
4. fall in love
   
5. have children
   
6. do arts and crafts with my daughter
   
7. make Halloween costumes for my kids
   
8. build something that touches someone's heart
   
9. learn to be more generous and giving
   
10. live somewhere other than San Francisco for at least 6 months
    
11. spend more time with my parents
    
12. understand why my parents are the way they are
    
13. do a triathalon
    
14. swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco
    
15. decorate my own home
    
16. live somewhere with a view of the San Francisco bay
    
17. keep better in touch with my friends
    
18. visit the Pyramids
    
19. see the terracotta soldiers in Xi'An
    
20. take a train up and down the French countryside
    
21. drive a stickshift smart car from London to Stonehenge
    
22. learn to paint
    
23. keep dancing
    
24. get my motorcycle license
    
25. buy a Vespa
    
26. be able to take public transportation to work
    
27. take a month-long vacation
    
28. learn to cook Chinese food from my mother
    
29. learn how to shoot archery
    
30. compete in a golf tournament
    
31. kiss in the rain (inspired by 43things.com)
    
32. keep up with this blog
    

Ok back to work for now. Thank you to my roommates for reminding me how much I have to live for and look forward to.