February 03rd, 2016

From the Top of the Hill Before Going Over

Having a moment with some chocolate frosting.

I turned 39.  I don't have any qualms about getting older--I feel like 50 is when I will really hit my stride--but approaching the end of a decade feels significant. Especially this decade: thirty-something Emily resembles nothing so much as the steel ball in a pinball machine. Sure, I hit a lot of targets and accumulate lots of points through life smacking me in the face and sending me spinning back into play, but I suspect it will feel great to finally make it past the flippers and into the next ten years.

Even so, this decade taught me so much about joy, grief, love, pain, when to fight to the death, when to surrender, and (sometimes) how to know which situations call for which approach. I'm grateful for all those lessons, much as I resisted many of them. I've always been an overachiever, though, so my goal is to squeeze as much life and learning as I can into the next 365 days and slide into 40 thinking, "Damn, I did that right."

Therefore I present the following list of 40 things I want to do before I turn 40:

(in spite of the numbers, there's really no particular order to this--I just needed to be able to keep track of how many things were on the list)

1. Learn to dance (in public) again
2. See a stand-up comedian or improv show
3. See three plays from different genres
4. Pick a local venue and watch at least four bands perform there
5. Make a list of six all-time favorite books and six new books; read one each month, alternating old and new
6. Take an in-person photography class or participate in a workshop that requires printed work and face-to-face feedback from the instructor
7. Shoot at least one roll of film on manual settings
8. Learn to develop film in a darkroom
9. Do a daily photo challenge and actually keep up with it
10. Visit photography exhibits in at least three different museums
11. Pick a theme and develop a monthly photo series around it
12. Take a photo walk in at least four different neighborhoods
13. Go to one of these: http://poisonpenreadingseries.com/blog2/
14. Take a writing class or participate in a workshop
15. Write a short story and actually let someone read it
16. Write something in a journal every day, even if it's only a sentence
17. Make phone calls as often as possible instead of sending texts or emails
18. Send at least one handwritten letter or card every week
19. Spend a day at the beach (I dislike the beach; this would be way out of my comfort zone)
20. Go hiking
21. Go fishing
22. Sleep under the stars at least once
23. Tell ghost stories around a campfire
24. Go to a haunted house
25. Take a cooking class
26. Take an overnight road trip somewhere completely new
27. Take two day trips to new places
28. Go to a professional soccer game or some other unfamiliar sporting event
29. Use public transportation or walk everywhere for one entire day (this will be a major challenge in Texas)
30. Learn to parallel park with confidence
31. Find a new favorite place to get breakfast tacos
32. Play pub trivia (and try not to become obnoxiously competitive about it)
33. Send someone flowers out of the blue
34. Go to celebrations from at least two different cultures, starting with this one: http://lunarnewyearhouston.com/2016-year-of-the-red-fire-monkey/
35. Go to the rodeo
36. Ride a rollercoaster that goes upside down
37. Go tubing on the Frio or Guadalupe
38. Go sailing
39. Take at least one overnight trip with friends
40. Plan a really fun way to celebrate my 40th birthday

And since any series of adventures needs a theme song:​