The List: Redux
Maybe a little more than a year isn't enough.
It's funny how
still has effects in my life now. Months after I hit 26, I had been meaning to make an entry summing up the goals I've accomplished and the ones I haven't --- should I want to pursue them still, should I make an entirely new list or forget about it all PLUS the lessons I learned through it all. People still come up to me and ask me about it, some are inspired, some gloat that I never finished it. Oh well.
Then I realized that spontaneous as we are, a well-lived life is like a business case, too. At the end of the day, one needs to achieve
the desired result {shoutout to my friend J, who gives his tailor a slide with the title Desired Result}. As I am on a new year kick and that I can't believe that I'm getting all fuzzy and hopeful and getting that clean-slate vibe, I am revamping the list into a five year plan.
2012, and the years to follow will keep getting better.
The Desired Result: Getting the Life I Have Always Wanted, aka My Best Life
What gives, you ask?
While I'd been tweeting and blogging about new hopes, and being refreshed, the truth is, I'd been missing my go-get-'em self. I no longer wake up thinking I would want to go to Europe for a holiday and jolting from the bed to dance or feeling that urge to wrap my legs around a pole {while I have done this already, last month I had so wanted to complete an entire routine}.
Temperance
, while good, can diminish an entire box of passions, kind of like surgery --- where other nerves get hit and become useless {Yes, I watch too much
Grey's Anatomy
.} Most days, while I am completely functional and responsible and straightlaced, probably the most straightlaced I have ever been in my entire life, I've lost the drive to act upon my instinct, my gut feel because they always get me into trouble. My solar plexus has taken a back seat and I am not sure if it's capable of wanting anything else in the future. Yes, one can count my high emotional quotient, too.
So maybe, there was a reason why I wasn't able to finish that list --- so I can have more years of following a well-crafted plan. I can have a few more years to live the life I've envisioned I will live as a kid before I enter a possibly, slightly-different phase of my life, maybe {referring to my thirties}. Surely, the temperance will remain, for the benefits of going through it is unabashedly worth it. I just need to remind myself to live.
Image by:
And live, I shall.
So the list comes back again, presenting the things I haven't done yet, and then some.These things I'll have to be done by the day I turn 30. You can view
to see which ones I've crossed already :)
1.
, and see a broadway show, amongst many, many things.
STATUS
: I am doing the first step to doing this dream in a few short days and my toes are all curling in excitement and I need all the well-wishes I need for this. TIA! When I tried my luck the last time, I can distinctly remember not having this utmost, almost feverish passion as I have now. And being a believer of the universe and its powers, I know that one will get something, anything, if one wants it that bad. And I want it, THIS bad.
4.
Cook a five-course meal and eat with someone I love
. I have never produced a five-course meal for anyone in my entire life and it would be a great honor to be able to do this for my parents, before I turn 26. First step to undertake: Read recipes, go to the market, PRACTICE.
STATUS:
I still have not cooked anything. Still have not set foot in the market and still yet to touch our stove.
STATUS 2:
All I did was clean the stove and not use it for cooking, dammit.
8.
Learn Spanish
. I have two reasons for having this on the list.
a)
Spanish
, IMO, will always be the hottest, sexiest language in my own little world,
caliente
. And
b)
My native language, Filipino, is a distant cousin of this so it should be hella easier than say, French.
9.
Learn how to swim properly
. Over the weekend, after a hazy Saturday night of partying in Manila's newest happening club, I suddenly, extremely spontaneously, found myself in the deepest nooks of C
oron, Palawan
, staring at the clear waters and wishing I could swim well without my life vest. It was such a numbing, sinking, animal of a feeling I wish I never feel again.
STATUS:
Can swim but can't properly tread.
10.
Live in a foreign city
. I really wonder why this comes in #11 for this is all I've been dreaming of since, well, since the beginning of the year. And life, like you wouldn't expect it, has been throwing me all the opportunities I can get. It's just the chicken in me who wouldn't budge. Yet. Take a leap of faith, and breathe. And rely on faith, and faith alone. You ever read about how people dropped everything for a new life, a new man, a new job etc. without so much as a plan or right amount of money to get by? I want to be just like them.
17.
Party hard in Ibiza, Spain. Lie topless in Rio de Janeiro
or
go walking and weeding in the streets of Amsterdam
. Euro-trashing, anyone? Most people want to visit Europe {okay, Brazil ain't Europe} because of the lovely architectural sights and that includes me! But when I visit Europe or Brazil, which should be in the next 1 1/2 years, I want to do something definitive of their crazy lifestyle.
STATUS
: So I sort of told my cousin I'm coming to her wedding in Amsterdam this year with no concept of how I'll be able to afford that and the many vacations I will take. Like I always say, the Universe will provide <3
18.
Commit
.
21.
Take photographs of my travels with a real Polaroid camera and pin them on a wall or give them to someone
. The thrill of not knowing how your photo will turn out {much like how it is with vintage SLRs, I had one and sold it dirt cheap, stupid move it was} is an insane high for me. Now, the problem is finding a nice Polaroid camera to do this. For the moment, I am getting my pola-fix with my
Poladroid
program and
Hipstamatic
on Apple iPhone.
I want my life to be a big celebration.
22.
Go Skydiving
. There are places that exist all around us, so easy to be in but so hard to get the courage to try. When I went scuba diving, I realized that while it was all so easy {discipline, not skill is key}, I had this little bit of experimental I-wanna-try everything spirit awakened in me. And so what is the most logical step after scuba? Skydive, what else?
Oh and bungee jump, too.
Free Fallin'.
Source.
24.
Do the tango, preferably with someone as dashing as Col. Slade of Scent of a Woman
. When I first watched this movie, back in the 90s on a VHS player, I was taken aback by the arresting charm and dancing prowess {more like grace} of my still-crush
Al Pacino
. When I get married, my first couple's dance will be to the tune of the song
Por Una Cabeza
, all because of this. But I want my first tango to be with a stranger :)
If there was a scene I have imagined myself so many times to be in, this is it.
Scent of a Woman, 1992
25.
Learn how to play a musical instrument.
There is only a handful of instruments I would have the patience to learn {I gotta be realistic for this project, it ain't a wishlist}and they are incredibly
expensivo
. But it just pains me to be not able to join jamming sessions as they happen. The last time it happened, I couldn't even play the kahon decently. So before I turn 26, I want to be able to learn to play at least one instrument, choose from the
drums or the violin
, and be able to join impromptu jamming sessions as they happen.
28.
Go skinny dipping
. And yes, I am totally aware that Mother, you are reading this. Have always been insecure with my body though it's not like I would be parading in the sun buck naked. My idea of skinny dipping is of course jumping into the seashore, running, dipping and going back to my clothes. In the night. No daytime skinny dipping for me lest my mother kill me for going naked in public. If I do, I will never tell.
xoxo
29.
My bachelorette house and a new car.
It's about time. Just because I don't need it doesn't mean I shouldn't.
30.
Pursue Yoga
. Not to sound rather preachy nor ambitious but I do have been thinking a LOT about engaging regularly in yoga. I have heard multitudes of benefits from this practice and from the looks of these benefits {zen and fitness, among many others}, I think I am going to be a huge fan.
Susan Jeffers
said, "Feel the fear but do it anyway." I am scared of committing to something {in fact I don't commit to a lot *cry} but if I don't do this now, there might never be a better time.
On the other hand, maybe this goal should be rephrased to keeping fitness as a lifestyle and not just when I need to fit into my size 0 dresses.
There.
STATUS:
While I've been active in pursuing all sorts of yoga, I don't want to cross this off yet because I want to continue doing it and I want this list to be a reminder of
My Before Yoga
days. What a long way my practice have come!
Wow, that's still a LOT!
Looking at the things I've yet to accomplish are scaring me so much now I am thisclose to ducking inside the comfort of my comforter and stay there all day. But one time, I have read somewhere that your dreams should scare you because if they don't, they aren't big enough.
I have about four years to work my butt off and earn money so I can achieve some of the expensive things I have to achieve.
On the other hand, some of the things are just a matter of instilling discipline into my life, learning something new, and becoming the person I've always wanted to be. I can do this.