A quarter for your thoughts

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive...

...who is you-er than you! Shout loud, “I am lucky to be what I am! Thank goodness I’m not just a clam or a ham Or a dusty old jar of sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am! That’s a great thing to be! If I say so myself, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!”

I feel like 25 should be a milestone, but more than that 25 is well, just 25. It is as though I have finally crossed the bridge into adulthood. However, even adulthood can't prevent me from crawling out of bed at 10:30 and eating a bowl of cereal and watching cartoons on Saturday mornings (much to Mike's dismay). Adulthood doesn't do anything but make you question every decision, and constantly wonder if you could have, should have, would have. Unfortunately musing about the past doesn't do a whole lot of good, so I have made my future plan.

My 25 for 25 list (in no particular order)

1. write a book, a novel, a collection of short stories, doesn't really matter...
2. see Europe, in real life, not just on google
3. learn to arrive five minutes early...particularly for work
4. run a marathon
5. take a photography class
6. learn to drink red wine (out of a vase, like on Cougartown)
7. master Spanish
8. go to the Louvre
9. learn to swim
10. go to NYC for NYE
11. sky dive
12. climb to the top of Fern's Nipple in Capital Reef, with my Dad
13. learn how to decorate cakes/cupcakes
14. go to Alaska
15. master the ukulele
16. learn to take life by the horns, like my Dad
17. get a puppy and smother it with love
18. learn to love deeply and fearlessly, like my Mom
19. watch the sunrise
20. learn how to sew, and actually make stuff
21. get a place that Mike and I can call our own
22. continue to cry at the scene in Up where Ellie can't make it up the hill anymore
23. play my violin, and never stop playing it (it's getting a little dusty)
24. never lose a sense of adventure and a desire to learn
25. never forget where I came from, but always remember that wherever I go, there I am.

I hope to always be the little girl on my grandma's porch in the green dress, the yellow glasses and the pig tails. No matter how complicated life seems, no matter how overwhelming things can get, I hope I always remember that life really is just as simple as a summer day on your grandma's porch.