then & now: my priorities and goals

It’s interesting to see the changes in what was important to a teenager and what is important to me now. I wanted to take note of what I wanted to accomplish, and what I have, and what I still want to do.

First, here are the lists. I crossed off what I did do already. In high school, my bucket list looked like:

• bridge-jumping

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• tattoo

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• go on a looping rollercoaster

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• throw frozen peas at people in the movie theater during a movie

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• ruby goldberg contraption

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• take a midnight train going anywhere

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• go on a 5k color run

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• write an italian sonnet

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• learn a dance

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• see a broadway show

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• join volleyball

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• gain 10 pounds

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• put glow sticks in a pool for a night swim

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• read all of vonnegut

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• go on a plane

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• write a novel

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• learn calligraphy

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• go to NYC during Christmas

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• go to: Spain, France, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland, England, Iceland.

Now it looks like:

• ireland/iceland trip

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• ice skate

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• try pilates

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• pottery

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• be professionally published

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• retirement plan

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• northern lights

I’m not sure why i romanticized jumping off a bridge. But I jumped off like rock faces in Hawaii which is kinda the same thing, and it wasn’t like exhilarating or anything. Roller coasters are actually scary. I went on a non-loop one and yeah, no thank you. I’ll pass. And the frozen peas? Harmless prank, but someone would have to clean that up. Also unclear why I was obsessed with making a contraption when I can hardly put something together with instructions.

I currently have eight tattoos. I will definitely get more. I saw a few Broadway shows (The Lion King, Wicked, Kinky Boots), and I have been in NYC around Christmas so I saw the tree and the crowds.

I did join intramural volleyball in college and I have gained the weight I wanted within the past 3 years. I am no longer interested in running, but learning a dance still kinda sounds fun as long as I am in a room by myself. I technically did lip sync in high school after I wrote that list, so I mean, I technically did dance. And I did dance for two years in elementary school…

If going home counts as “taking a midnight train going anywhere” then I have been on a midnight train. I just had a destination.

I haven’t finished all of Vonnegut’s books, but I have read almost half. I wrote a list of 31 of his books, and I have read 14.I do still plan to write some poems within a certain structure and give calligraphy a better try than I did a few years ago.

I have been on a plane to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Florida, Bahamas… I think that’s it for the plane rides. My travel list hasn’t necessarily been narrowed, just focused on the two places I really want to go first. Then we’ll think about another trip.

When I think about now, there is less I find myself wanting to try that seem … big. I wanna try crochet. I want to make more art, read more books. I have never been daring but apparently I was pretending to be when I was younger.

I also was never good at making long lists because i simply didn’t want to give it that much thought or I sincerely was like, that’s enough. What else could there be?

I’ve also always kept my goals pertaining to just me as I could not fathom having to rely on or make someone else do what I want to do. That also wouldn’t make it a personal goal, now would it?

I could say my priorities have changed, but I feel like that isn’t it. It’s more like I’m ready to accept that my priorities were never adventurous and I was following someone else’s example instead of my own. They were a jetsetter and I was a homesteader. And to be honest, I quite like it here, making things instead of doing things for the sake of doing them.

Please share something you wanted as a child that seems silly now. And I’d love to hear about now.