100+ Things

I was recently on StumbleUpon, wasting time (as usual) when it brought me to a site where they talked about making a list of 100 things. It could be anything, really. 100 Things to Cook. 100 Ways to Tell Someone You Love Them. 100 Things to Wear. 100 Things to Remember. 100 Ways to Get Through Anything. It really didn't matter what the list was about, as long as it was 100 things. (I suggest you read the website first, maybe you'll understand better what I'm talking about and explain questions you may have: http://litemind.com/tackle-any-issue-with-a-list-of-100/ ) So I figured, what the heck, I might try this. I did one list that my mind immediately jumped to and it was... helpful. I realized a lot of things as I wrote it and dug really deep into my reasons for wanting to make that list. It's going to remain private for now, but maybe I'll share it with you later; heck, maybe I'll make a list of 100 Reasons to Share a Private, Personal List. Well, maybe not.

At any rate, I did a second one just today and I started crying. Like, full on tears streaming down my face, upset, almost loudly sobbing kind of cry. It was really refreshing for me. It showed me a lot of patterns to my thinking and helped me really sort things out in my mind. I absolutely loved it. I'm not entirely sure how my list will be applicable in the future and I'm sure it will change as I grow older, adding things and subtracting things necessarily, but as of right now, this list is everything about me. I even bolded the ones that made me cry particularly hard or ones that I think are super important to me right now. I'm sure I forgot some things and I'm sure some things are kind of silly, but they're thoughts I had right now, and they're important to me. I can't even tell you enough how superbly fantastic these lists are. So here's mine, in no specific order, no rhyme or reason to it. It's kind of sparse, rather vague, and probably not worth all this fanfare I'm putting it through. But it's not my list that's important, but the idea behind it. And I love it.

100 Things I Want To Do In My Life

1. Get married
2. Have a family
3. Travel!
4. Be a true, completely committed follower of Jesus
5. Be smart/intelligent
6. Love people
7. Do things that I love
8. Have at least one boy and one girl as children (preferably)
9. Find my soul mate
10. Become comfortable with who I am
11. Love my life
12. Be a bold witness to Christ
13. Read the entire Bible and understand and appreciate it (these definitely go hand in hand)
14. Stay friends with the people I met at A-tech (there’s probably, like, two or three that are on the definite list)
15. Stay friends with those girls I met in Campbell (probably about six or so, as of right now anyway)
16. Make more amazing friends
17. Be supportive
18. Visit Japan
19. Learn an Asian language
20. Go to China
21. Heck, go to a lot of Asian countries
22. Go to Europe
23. Not ever worry about money
24. Visit England
25. Help people in need
26. Love people in need
27. Donate money to those who really need it
28. Not be like my parents (especially in the bad aspects)
29. Don’t be an angry person
30. Learn to love my qualities
31. Be secure with who I am
32. Okay, visit the UK in general
33. Retire well enough (this is a long way off, so I don’t know what this looks like)
34. Love people more than things
35. Have a compost pile
36. Live wherever makes me happy
37. Go to church often
38. Adopt kitties from the animal shelter!
39. Write a book
40. Be involved in a church
41. Work at a homeless shelter
42. Trust people
43. See the good in everyone
44. Love my family
45. Not worry about possessions
46. Visit Australia
47. Go to India
48. Feel comfortable in a bathing suit again
49. Be able to wear shorts without worrying about my knees
50. Fix my knees
51. Exercise more
52. Eat well
53. Eat good food
54. Live in a big-ish city
55. Be happy wherever I live
56. Smell good all the time
57. Stay organized
58. Never fail to see the beauty around me
59. Find someone who knows me and still loves me for it
60. Visit clear beaches
61. Appreciate any current circumstances
62. Praise God for my circumstances
63. Take care of myself
64. Take care of others
65. Don’t be so self-centered
66. Forget about my past pain
67. Learn from my past pain
68. Don’t let my past pain keep me back from anything
69. Be proud of who I am
70. Have confidence in me
71. Know that it’s not me that I'm living for
72. Die to myself everyday
73. Always be willing to change
74. Always remember my family and my roots (this is a tough one)
75. Always be willing to help others, no matter what
76. Don’t stress
77. Rely on God for everything
78. Be happy
79. Always go on family vacations to new places
80. Always be willing to do new things
81. Change the world… somehow
82. Learn when to be frugal and when not to be
83. Be inspirational
84. Respect everything (basically everything)
85. Question everything
86. Always be curious
87. Don’t be afraid of living life
88. Have fun
89. Don’t worry about the little things
90. Know that I am forgiven, beloved, righteous, holy, reborn, remade, accepted, and worthy
91. Visit New York City
92. Live near to the beach (preferably in California)
93. Develop lasting relationships with wonderful people
94. Never forget Las Vegas
95. Always think of good memories
96. Have hope in my future
97. Don’t hold grudges
98. Feel loved, always
99. Do my best at all times
100. Don’t dive too deep into my head all the time
101. Be social
102. Always be ME

All of these things, to me, mean that I will have a successful, rich, amazing life. (And yes, I know there's 102, but it's my list, I can do what I want with it!)