This year, I'm taking creative writing for school. It's an elective course, and it only happens once a day. It's taught by this completely inspiring, down to earth young woman, who is one of those teachers who kids switch classes to get. I'm not sure how long she's been teaching for, but she's not new, but has escaped the waning of enthusiasm that seems to plague teachers after the ten year mark.
The class is based around free writing. We're currently in our memoir unit- which seems silly, because it's a class full of sixteen and seventeen year old kids. What could we have to remember? Oooh, y'know, back in my day, things were very different. Get this- Dial up was the newest thing to have, and if you wanted to watch a movie, VHS was how it went. Can you believe it?
So, almost every day, we're given a prompt to think on and then write about in our journals. This class is the only time I'll ever admit to owning a journal, because journals always just sort of seemed like a word to use when you didn't want to admit you kept a diary. But all the same. We've been writing about memories and learning different ways to approach a prompt. But my teacher doesn't stop there, oh no. This is one of those classes where the instructor isn't just interested in you growing as a student- she also wants us to grow as people.
Not a bad thing, no. But it's ambitious, and is absolutely the right way to approach this class. It's sort of like therapy in the middle of the day. On Monday, she told us to create our life list, which is a list of 25 total things that we want to accomplish or do before we turn thirty. 5 of them are supposed to be things that you hardly dare to say, since they're so wild or difficult or inconceivable. I thought this might be a good place to post up mine, and I'll discuss them more as the year goes on. Most of them are pretty self explanitory, but I'll explain the ones that aren't.
BECCA'S LIFE LIST
1. Join Peace Corps
2. Roadtrip to nowhere
*Drive and get lost.
3. Go raspberry picking
*We used to pick Strawberries, before I became allergic. So, I want a replacement. Crops in Maine are sort of limited, and picking potatoes just doesn't have the same appeal.
4. Sing the national anthem for something
5. Record an album. Or at least a song, or something.
6. Become a really really exceptional female Ultimate player
7. Learn 25 new veggie dishes that don't taste like crap and aren't super expensive.
*I am an extremely unhealthy vegetarian. I need to fix this.
8. Get a shot
*This sounds weird, and maybe a little bit masochistic, but my greatest fear is syringes. I can't even look at them when they show flu clinics on the news, because it makes me hyperventilate. I'm three years overdue for my tetanus booster. So, I guess, what I really want to do is proactively get a shot, which means calling and making the appointment and trying to act like a big girl. Easier said than done.
9. Make Honor roll/Make it into NHS
10. Go white water rafting
11. Model professionally
*as in get paid. It's just one of those things I've always thought would be neat to try.
12. Go to France
13. Make a difference in the homeless community
14. Make it to NFL nationals
*For those of you who don't know, the NFL isn't actually the National Football League. Although it'd be sweet if I was a Quarterback in real life, no? NFL stands for National Forensics League, the national association for Speech and Debate.
15. Get a lead role.
16. Dance again
17. Parkour, Parkour! :D
18. Give a speech at my high school graduation
19. Get an oboe scholarship for college.
20. Convince someone that I'm British, just for shits and giggles. (Bonus points if the person is from the UK)
RIDICULOUS THINGS THAT BECCA DREAMS OF DOING.
1. Hike the Appalachian Trail. Barefoot.
2. Publish my writing. And I know that when I post this, the little button I click says "publish post", and all... but that doesn't count, guys!
3. Vanquish my ADD
4. Run a Marathon
5. Do something so mindblowingly awesome that people stop and stare and then want to shake my hand and say "you, miss, are a lady and a scholar, and also quite intriguing."
Goals.
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