Carpe Diem

The other day at work [I stand in the same spot for 4 hours and have a lot of time to think] I was thinking about life. I was thinking about how I am currently 19 years old and on my next birthday I will be 20. I will no longer be a teenager. I will most likely graduate from college when I am 20 and then I will have to face the real world, get a real job. I am not ready for that at all! So I was thinking about this and then I started thinking about the movie The Dead Poet's Society. If you have not seen this movie, go and watch it right now. I think this is a fantastic movie. Anyways, in this movie Robin Williams' character is talking to his students and he says:

They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

I want to make my life extraordinary. And so to prepare for my twenties, I am going to do some extraordinary things. I have taken the last several days to really think about life and things that I want to accomplish in life. I have thought about things that I have always wanted to do but have never taken the time to do or have been too scared to do. And now I am going to do them. Before my 20th birthday, I am going to do these 20 things (in no particular order):

1. Skydive

2. Eat Sushi

3. Audition for So You Think You Can Dance – or Cougarettes

4. Travel – Visit [at least] 2 states I have not been to before

5. Read the Bible – both Old and New Testament

6. Drive [or maybe walk] across the Golden Gate Bridge

7. Learn words to “We Didn’t Start the Fire”

8. Run ½ Marathon

9. Go to the circus (or Cirque du Soleil if the circus does not present itself available)

10. Eat a giant piece of Pollyanna-like cake

11. Hike the Y

12. Watch all of the Lord of the Rings movies

13. Read Jane Eyre – I have tried this once and got nothing out of it, so I am going to enjoy it this time around!

14. Make myself a dress – a cute dress that I will wear!

15. Attend a professional ballet

16. See the Nutcracker

17. Play in a pile of leaves

18. Visit 7 Temples I have not visited before

19. Ice Skate in an Outdoor ice skating rink

20. Better express my emotions

This blog is now dedicated to the documentation of my "bucket list" so to speak. And now wish me luck as I begin my journey of making my life extraordinary as I prepare to exit my teens and turn the big 20!