OLD AND FILLED WITH DESPAIR
June 16, 2010
Sometimes my friends tell me what they are doing with their lives and I get jealous and then envious and then depressed and then I feel old and filled with despair and like I will never accomplish anything.
But I like to practice optimism.
And therefore, inspired by the genius of Maggie Mason, I present to you an ever evolving Life List.
TO STAVE OFF THE DESPAIR
(or, Yvanka’s List of Awesome Shit to Accomplish)
- Host a dinner party
- Go camping (in a tent)
- Publish an academically viable article
- Feel comfortable – nay, HOT – in a two-piece bathing suit
- Go to a movie alone
- Wake up early and sit on my porch with a cup of coffee and read a chapter before I shower
- Yoga
- Get my Ph.D.
- Fall in love
- Make sorbet
- Attend an outdoor concert
- Learn to play more than three chords on the guitar
- Learn to play more than three chords on the mandolin
- Take a personal day and spend it doing exactly what I want to do, when I want to do it
- Make simple syrup
- Create something with letterpress
- Design my own t-shirt
- Learn to read tarot
- Perform something from every major Sondheim musical
- Take a weekend scooter trip with my dad
- Get cast as a lead again
- Learn when to stop
- Have mind-blowing sex
- Buy myself a set of a fabulous pots and pans
- Buy myself a diamond
- Start a rainy day fund
and one to grow on…
27. Say yes to something unexpected and exciting.
