Tag Archives: goals

November 8, 2011

Goals of 17-year-old me

In the distant past that was my senior year of high school, I tried to compose a list of the 100 things I wanted to accomplish in life. After a few days of adding to the list, I had only come up with 46 goals. But, what it lacked in quantity, I think it makes up for in quality — Especially four years later, when I can look back and see what I’ve accomplished, what I continue to dream of and what I now think is obsolete.

Graduate from the University of Kansas. Just a few more months until (knock on wood) this goal is accomplished.
Work for a non-governmental organization in a developing country. Not something I’m really interested in at this point.
Get my law degree. Decided not to pursue this a few years ago.
Marry a man who makes me laugh, smile and feel good. He must also be a hard-worker who values the things I do. Must be attractive — to me! I’m even luckier in this aspect than I ever thought possible.

Have four or five children. Ask me how I feel about this in a few years…
Have a career as a political correspondent. My interest in politics has faded, while my passion for health has grown.
Be able to see my parents and sister whenever I need to. I am so excited to have my sister in town next year, but I hope to be even closer to my parents some day. Nonetheless, I can still see them whenever I really need to. Three hours isn’t a bad drive!
Travel to all seven continents. Since writing this list, I’ve checked one (Europe) off this list. Still more to go. And, yes, I want to step foot on Antarctica!
Run a marathon. Working my way toward this goal, thanks to three half-marathons. It’s still a big jump up to a full marathon and I’m not quite ready for that commitment yet.
Write a book. This is a major goal for me to accomplish… Some day.
Meet a president of the United States. Preferably John Kennedy. I’ll wait for them to invent time travel.
Go sky diving. This isn’t too high on my list.
Keep in touch with old friends. Done this pretty well so far. I think a testament to that is the fact that four of my bridesmaids were friends from high school.

Speak to a crowd larger than 10,000 people. If I interpret this loosely, it could be a goal of getting 10,000 hits on my blog.
Visit all 50 states. I mostly need to hit up the northeast and Hawaii.
Go backpacking. Dan and I plan on hiking a 14-er in Colorado next summer, so that will check this off the list!
Make very little money. Uhm, life right now.
Make a lot of money. The real goal is just to be financially stable and comfortable.
Truly impact someone’s life. This difficulty with this goal is that I would never necessarily know if it’s accomplished.
Continue to have and grow in faith with God. With four more years of life, I’ve had four more years of ups and downs. Through it all, I think my faith has grown, but there is still room.
Not eat chocolate for a whole year. Did this during 2009, but I don’t know if it’s something to be proud of.
Really develop an art skill. With no real skills, I don’t know what will happen with this.
Teach aerobics. I don’t know if I still want to teach aerobics, but I would like to teach some kind of fitness class or lead a group.
Be able to speak another language and have the chance to use it. Definitely tested this during my summer of studying abroad. I lived with a host family, so I spoke a lot of German!

Don’t drink any alcohol on my 21st birthday. Ask me about this next week, but it’s still a goal… Although Tuesday is a free-for-all!
Find a cause that I can be truly passionate about. Check! I am really passionate about health and body confidence.
Be comfortable in my own skin. I wouldn’t check this off the list quite yet, but I’ve definitely improved since I wrote this list.
Learn how to dance a variety of dances. Don’t really know what I was thinking when I wrote this.
Be on national television or write for a national publication. Still hope for this.
Be able to make the perfect batch of cookies at any time. I have a few different versions that would satisfy this goal.
Figure out how to spend a lot of time with my family and balance a career. I would say this is more important to me now than it was when I wrote it. I now have a better appreciation for family.
Sew a quilt. I request a sewing machine first.
Go scuba diving. I went snorkeling on the honeymoon, which is kind of a cop-out. Who has time to take scuba lessons while living in Kansas?
Write handwritten letters every once in a while. I need a reminder to do this.
Read the whole bible. I’ve made more progress and lost track of what I’ve actually read. But, I am closer!
Play with a monkey. Why isn’t this No. 1?
Go to Austria and Ireland. My dad’s family is purely Irish while my mom’s is primarily Austrian. For those reasons, I always wanted to see where my ancestors came from. I crossed Austria off the list when I was studying abroad.

Tell someone what I truly think of them. I make this goal happen every time I tell Dan, “I love you.” Cheesy, but true!
Go surfing. Maybe when I visit Hawaii!
Storm chase and actually see a tornado. Living in Nebraska, storm chasing was out weekend entertainment during high school. I’m thankful that a tornado never caused destruction close to where I live, but I’d still like to see a “live one” out in a field.
Come up with an original recipe. Check, check, check x 100.
Backpack across a foreign country. I feel better doing this in the future, knowing that Dan would go along with me. Although, I don’t know how I feel about hostels or other cheap sleeping options.
Have the “right thing” to say. I can be an awkward person… But I’ve (probably) gotten better. What does that tell you?
Be able to tell a really good joke. Don’t know if I am the best judge of this — I think all my jokes are pretty funny.
Go dancing in the rain. We’ll see about this.
“Talk” with someone who speaks another language without the ability to translate. Just understand them on a human level. Obviously I was getting kind of desperate by this point. But, I still think it’s a cool concept.