In Conclusion

I started this list and this blog a few weeks before my 35th birthday because it was the first time I was dreading my birthday instead of being excited. I normally love my birthday. And it wasn’t because of a dislike for getting older. The age itself held this weird fear for me that I’d been feeling for a long time and I had a hard time figuring out why. Part of it was because a few years before when I had talked to my doctor about having kids, 35 was the age she said I should really start trying by. And I think the other part was this sense that things weren’t going well and I was in for a big scary change in my life.

So I dealt with this big scary feeling by making this list of goals; things to look forward to accomplishing throughout this big scary year of 35. I enjoyed making the list, talking to friends about this list, deciding what to put on, what to take off. It was fun. And I’m so incredibly glad that I did it, because that sense that my life was going to go completely in a different direction was right. I don’t know of any year with as much change and newness and emotional upheaval that I’ve gone through, except maybe moving to Scotland on my own.

This year I left my husband, my house, my kitties, many of my plans for the future all behind. I moved in to an apartment for the first time and I lived by myself for the first time. I’ve dealt with all kinds of situations that I never thought I’d go through. I ended up taking in one of our kitties and took care of her for a while until she passed away. And of course, I still had to do things like work and cook and clean.

But this list helped in a lot of ways. It gave me little goals to work towards and a sense of accomplishment every time I got to check one off. I like looking back and seeing what I did this year. Seeing how much stronger I got, going to the gym, running and being able to do push-ups, and how many different foods I tried and books I read and new experiences I had.

I didn’t manage to get them all. Out of 35 I successfully completed 31. I think that’s still pretty awesome. I got close with the foods from different countries and I’m getting closer with unassisted pull-ups. I also didn’t manage to use a telescope and I didn’t even look at my novel to start editing it. But despite that I feel pretty good about it. A few friends have teased me for not managing the last four, but if I think back to all I did manage to do this year, I think I was still pretty successful.

People have also asked me if I’m going to do this again this year. No, I’m not. I might do something when I turn 40 (Oh my goodness that’s only four years away!) but for this year, for now, I’m just going to keep looking for new things to try and keep my to do lists more private. But I might start blogging again, maybe just for school or just for myself, but living on my own makes me want to write again.

Here’s to 36! May this year be a good one.

#28 Spend a day at the beach

Who could have predicted that this would be one of my last ones to complete?! I thought for sure I would get in at least one beach day last summer but no such luck and it took me until the last day of July of this year to get one. But it was a perfect day. I went with four of my friends to New River Beach, it’s a beautiful spot near Saint John. It’s only about an hour away and I managed to introduce one of my friends to the musical Come From Away while we drove so that’s a double win.

The weather was perfect. We arrived nice and early before the crowds came and because it was a Monday, it never got very crowded. We relaxed, had two very chilly dips in the water, had some lunch on the sand and people watched. It felt pretty fantastic.

#22. Plant a Tree

 

I had intended to do this goal at my house, but as I’m now living in an apartment, I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage this goal or where I was going to plant this tree somewhere that would be meaningful. I thought about planting one at school but we just started this new playground plan where they’re going to change a whole lot of things on the playground so I didn’t want to risk my new tree being taken away. I have a friend who works doing nature conservancy and often plants trees so I thought of going to do that with her, but then my parents said they had a tree ready to be planted and I could go and do that at their house. We went and visited with them briefly before heading to Europe on our trip. It’s a cute little tree with pretty flowers. Hopefully I planted it well enough that it will do well.

#17 – TreeGo

I’ve done TreeGo a few times in past years but last year I didn’t manage to go and I love it so this year I was bound and determined to go. Part of the problem was that the friends who I normally do everything with, especially anything adventurous, are afraid of heights and even though they’ve talked about trying it, they haven’t managed to go yet. So I had to find other people to be adventurous with me instead. I managed to get this lovely group of people from the cast of Cabaret to go with me. Some of them had gone before and some were new to it.

For those who don’t know what it is, TreeGo is basically an obstacle course set way up in the trees. There are ladders to climb, tightropes to walk across, logs to balance on, zip lines and many other things. You’re attached in to a harness and are always hooked in to a safety line. With a big group like this, it took us a fairly long time – about 3 hours. It was great fun as usual, a little hard on the arms at times, especially going up and down ladders. I’m glad I finally managed to do this goal and hope to be able to do it again this year.