24 is the new me

...Friday came a lot quicker than I thought it would. It's not that the week went by quicker than normal or anything, it seems as though life is speeding up quick a bit faster than I had anticipated and all of a sudden I'm 24 years old, a supposed "adult" in society, making a living and far away from home.

Birthdays traditionally are a time to reflect and think about what you've done, what you should have done, what you could have done and what you should do to improve on the upcoming year of your life. Then it hit me -- I just need to *DO* something. Anything. It occur ed to me that while I've always had the intent to make it big or do something grand, I rarely put those plans into action or do the leg work/research to make them happen. I'm a big talker and no longer a doer. I have to tell you that SUCKS.

So, I've decided to start a list of things I want to accomplish before this life is through. Ideally I'll come up with 101 really great ideas, but I'm not going to close it off to that because, well, there's a big world out there and a lot of stuff I want to do. So my list begins.....

1. Live abroad -- I hope somewhere that English is not the first language, which brings me to number two...
2. Learn a foreign language. I can understand a lot of Italian and Spanish, but my conversational skills leave much to be desired. I have the Mandarin Chinese disks..maybe I'll pop those in...
3. Ride an elephant in Cambodia, Laos or Thailand. I've always wanted to go there, I'm not sure why.
4. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef - here's the honest truth...I'm terrified of ocean water. It FREAKS me out, all those things swimming about waiting to attack me..ughhhhhh but the water is clear there and, well, beautiful. I think I could suck it up.
5. Get a book published. Everyone dreams of being published, I just happen to write better than most of them. Okay, kidding...sort of.
6. Serve on the board of a national non-profit organization. My heart has always been with abused/neglected women and I'd love to know that my actions can make a difference.
7. Hike a big mountain. Just sounds like a good idea.
8. Run a marathon. I'm thinking in the next year or so I could check this baby off.
9. Make my own knock of Versace gown. I could do it, it just might take a couple years. Oh and I need a sewing machine.
10. Live in a huge city -- New York, Chicago, LA, Paris, London, Tokyo...where ever.
11. Learn various forms of dance and participate in a dance competition. Salsa, belly dance, ballroom, clog dancing, etc.
12. Run my own business. It might be consulting, it might be an art studio, who knows. Something and something good.
13. Camp out in the Peruvian Amazon.
14. Have tea and crumpets in England.
15. Take the Pride and Prejudice tour. If you know me at all, you know I love P & P.
16. Make a commitment to reconnecting with my Southern heritage. Truth is, I love being Southern. I just need to make it more intrinsic in my personality.
17. Teach a class. Whether it's experimental college or teaching English abroad somewhere, I really want to teach.
18. Go to Vegas. I'm not going to tell you what happens there since it's a rule. I might not even tell you when I go.....okay maybe.
19. Go on a cruise. I'm a big loser, I've never been on one.
20. Attend fashion week. It's going on right now and I'm not there. I don't want another year to go by without me in Bryant Park.
21. Ride a hot air balloon. I'm TERRIFIED of heights...which leads me to my next one....
22. Bungee jumping. I feel like that's on everyone's list...man it gives me anxiety to even type it out. Whew, maybe hold off on that one for a while.
23. Go to tomato fest in Spain.
24. Take a wine tour.

There is 24, for now. Much more to come...I'll follow up with birthday pictures a bit later.