Mighty Summer List

I'm an avid blog reader, something a lot of my close friends and family know, but not many other people do. It's an awkward thing to admit, as a hobby, this blog reading thing. Do you know how many people act as if a crack addiction would be a more acceptable thing to do? They ask, "What do you do in your spare time?" And I cheerfully reply, "Oh I use Twitter and I blog and I read a few blogs."

Peoples' eyes glaze over as if I have whipped out a stack of photos showing happy shots of me and my boyfriend, or they act as if it is something DIRTY. How DARE I admit that I waste my time on something on the internet that isn't FACEBOOK?

But I do, oh, how I do. I love you, internet, and the more time I spend on it, I wonder how so many of my peers can be the INTERNET GENERATION and yet be so oblivious to the awesome that is the internet.

Which brings me to Maggie Mason and her Mighty Life List, which she started posting in March of 2008. Mighty Girl is one of my favorite sites to check regularly, and I often wish that I was living in San Francisco, which is something I generally wish for anyway. I imagine it is like Athens, only with access to SUSHI outside of the local Kroger's, and that whole California thing.

Maggie recently announced that Intel is sponsoring her life list. You can check out her site to see what she has done so far and what-not.

When I first saw Maggie's completed list, I was both jealous and intimidated. It seems impossible to dream that big, to think of things as wild and seemingly impossible as going to Puerto Rico to swim with bioluminescent plankton and then going out there and doing it. I can barely imagine the next three years following the basic 'get an education and then find employment' path. To be completely honest, the sheer cost of some of the things on her list freaked me out too. I can't even begin to imagine being at a point in my life where I can put 'Go to London to see the Broad Street water pump' on my list and knowing that I can actually DO IT when I do(it's a weird personal goal, I know, but it's mine). It is so much easier to stand still and wait for life to happen to you, for everything that you mean to do to just suddenly fall into place and be that perfect summer movie fantasy, you know?

Like a sack of bricks, the realization hit me that I needed to stop waiting and just GO AND DO. So what does it matter that I can't afford to go to London right this minute? That doesn't mean I have to sit around and do absolutely nothing. I started my Summer Mighty List that night and hope to start crossing things off this week. It's not too elaborate, because the goal is to have a good summer, to do all the things I always mean to do but end up pushing aside for something more mundane and easy, like watching a SpongeBob rerun.

So, in no particular order, I present to you, my Mighty Summer List:

1. Go to the Columbus Zoo

2. Learn to drive stick shift

3. Daytrip out of state (Pittsburgh is the goal)

4. Make a skirt/learn to sew

5. Make marshmallows from scratch

6. Go hiking

7. Go camping

8. Learn to play a song on my guitar

9. Actually go to the attractions in Cleveland

10. Make my room a happy living space

11. A grand loving gesture

12. Try the fruits I thought were gross or weird when I was younger

13. Catch fireflies with my brother

14. Sparklers with my brother(s)

15. Bubbles and sparklers at sunset with Jon

16. Visit my sister in Cincinnati and check out the city

17. Volunteer

18. Swim at the lake

19. Get in/on a boat

20. Go to the state fair

Some of these are a little more abstract, some are amazingly easy SEEMING, but I'm hoping to do all of them. If I come up with anything to add, you'll know.

What're some of your goals for the summer?