Hello

One of my favorite quotes from The Simpsons is “you remind me of me before the weight of the world crushed my dreams.” In my younger years I used to say it in jest about young teenagers starting at the fast food restaurant I worked at through my college years. They would be excited for their first job, the same first job I was now I was now cynical of. It was funny at the time, but when I think of it now, it just seems sad.

When I was younger, nothing seemed impossible. There was nothing to stop me from accomplishing all my dreams. But, you work at a few crappy jobs, you work or deal with people with no respect for others, or thanks to union rules you can’t turn your term position into permanent while some useless person that does nothing keeps their job because of length of service not quality of work. It can make a person cynical, or it did for me anyways. Although I still had dreams, they were not world changing dreams.

I envy the people who have never had those doubts and have dreamed big their whole lives but I am also thankful that I have now rediscovered my inner child. It all started when I met my soul-mate and she started to encourage me to pursue my love of photography. I started to show my work to family and friends and got some positive feedback and started to realize that I can accomplish things that I put my mind to. Since then, I have been discovering the joy of travel, photography, writing, and just accomplishing bigger things in general.

But it is no longer enough. The time has come to make a list of things of things I want to see and do, my so-called “bucket list”. And in hopes of making myself more accountable I have decided to make the list public. I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator and have learned that by making lists for myself I can more easily keep myself focused.

Many things on my lists are not things I can just go out and accomplish tomorrow (ie. it would not be possible or even advisable for me to go out tomorrow and run a marathon given my current level of fitness.) I have added steps to my list as to the steps I need to complete on my journey and am keeping a journal of what I need to do each day. The only thing that can stop me now is me and I refuse to let that happen any longer because I deserve better.

I certainly am open to all encouragement and criticism and look forward to hearing from people with goals similar to my own. My short term goal is to accomplish 40 goals before I am 40, which only gives my a little over two years but what is the use of setting goals without challenging yourself?

Winston Churchill said, “history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” We all are in charge of writing our own histories, and although we may not all change the world we can change our little part of it for the better and that is what I intend to start doing… before I kick the proverbial bucket.