If you've read this blog, you know: I did a big thing this fall. I packed my bags and headed to Europe for three months, with nary a hint at any sort of itinerary. Needless to say, the time I spent experiencing culture, meeting new people, and reuniting with old friends was more than well spent.
In Rotterdam, my spontaneous and quirky friend Gemmeke showed me the door of her bedroom. On it, she had posted her “list.” Eighty-four things, written in permanent marker on a huge sheet of orange construction paper, she wanted to do in life--some ambitious, some simple, and some crazy. She already had a few things crossed off and was committed to completing every single activity.
I liked the idea.
A few weeks later, I was sitting alone in the Piazza Santa Croce. It was time to write my own list. I’m sharing it here not only because many of the things are related to my musical career, but also as a reminder. Figure out what you love: however small, however outlandish, or however unrealistic. And do it.
- Design and publish my website
- Sing on a busy street corner
- Sing the role of Charlotte from Massenet’s Werther
- Learn to speak Italian, French, and German fluently in the next 10 years
- Become a certified yoga instructor
- Live in Italy...
- ...and eat a different baked good every day
- Record a pop album
- Catalogue my mother’s recipes and share them with the world
- Write something worth reading
- Go to Russia
- Travel to every continent! (Perhaps not Antarctica)
- Acquire a library
- Spend an allotted amount of time in solitude
- Be baptized in the Jordan river
- Memorize something meaningful
- Read Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther” in the original German
- Run a half marathon
- Run a full marathon
- Get in to Yale
- Practice an hour a day, every day
- Sponsor a child
- Actually become proficient at piano
- Dance more
- Own real estate in Southern California
