#16 Write Something Significant/Conclusion

I know this might seem like kind of a cop out, but writing this bucket list was probably one of the most significant things I have ever written.  For a while I thought about writing a short story, or writing an essay-- but then I realized that over the course of this last year, this bucket list included several of these... and then some.  And I felt like the best way to conclude my "bucket list year" would be to reflect on the bucket list as a whole.

For the longest time I wanted to be a writer.  Between the middle of elementary school and the end of high school, I always kept a notebook where I would write everything from short stories, to journal entries, to poems.  By the time I graduated, I had several paper bags filled with old notebooks in my closet.  At first I dreamed of writing novels, but my freshman year of high school I decided I wanted to be a journalist.  And I held on to that dream until the middle of my junior year in college, when I decided I would rather work in a field that would be easier to find a job in (journalism is somewhat of a dying industry.)  So I chose business.  And for the last six years, I've tried to decide whether or not I regretted it.

This blog was obviously meant to encourage me to do things that I    
might not have otherwise done.  But it was also meant to stretch me as a writer.

Because even though I have been a "writer" since I was in 3rd grade, I have never written publicly.  And, even further, I put myself in a position where I had to write a large number of things in a relatively short period of time.  Several times this year I found myself with about six blogs I still needed to write... and even if I was tired or didn't have much time to edit anything, I still had to write one.  And then publish it.  I felt like this was my way of proving whether I was ever cut out to be a journalist or a writer.

To be honest, I still don't know.  And maybe that's evidence that I chose the right path.  There is no doubt in my mind that I can do it-- I did it!  And there were times that I sat back and was really proud of what I had written.  But there were also times that it was stressful and I didn't feel like I had enough time to write something valuable.  And I'm just not sure I enjoyed that.  I think if I am ever going to write something "public" in the future, I'd prefer to have more time to work on it.  I don't think journalism allows you that luxury. :)

Whether or not I achieved what I was hoping from writing this bucket list, I can tell you without a doubt that I don't regret any of it.  I am so much of a dreamer-- I love to dream of things that I want to do someday, places I want to go, things I want to accomplish.  The majority of my life I have focused much more on the future than the present.  And this year I knew that would be harder than any other year.  Because I knew this next year I would be engaged.  And I knew within the next few years I would go back to school, and maybe get a house, and maybe have enough money to travel, and maybe someday I'd start a family.  And I didn't want to waste this last year waiting for all of these things.  I wanted to live in THAT moment and enjoy where I was THEN.  And because I chose to focus on the present, this last year ended up being one of the best years of my life.

I always wanted to see a Vikings game-- and I did!  I always wanted to ride an elephant in India-- but why wait for India?  I did it this year.  I wanted to read the Bible in Spanish, but I never had the motivation to do it until I told all my facebook friends I would.  And then I had to!  I wanted to learn to cook, to grow as a musician, to become more of an artist, to live a healthier lifestyle, to actually SPEND a little of my money instead of just saving it.  I did all of these things.

Over the course of this last year, I have been able to do so much and grow so much as a person.  I have strengthened so many different skills and accomplished so many life goals.  But, more than anything, I was able to improve my outlook on life: that life is now and always will be now.  And that, while it's important to remember the past and to plan for the future, you should always live in the present.  I'm really looking forward to living in the "present" this next year as I plan for a wedding. :)  Of course it will be a lot easier to do this, now that life is more exciting.  But I'm glad I was able to make the most of this last "less significant" year.  I made it significant and I will always remember it now.

#25 Write Two Piano Songs

Be Brave (by Brian and me)

October (by me)

#17 Paint a Picture, #31 Color an Entire Coloring Book, #50 Melting Pot

Forewarning: I am not an artist.  Not even a little bit.  This might surprise some people, because in general I'm a pretty "artistic" person.  But it's mostly consolidated into one area of the arts-- music.  I do at least understand what looks good and I feel like I can take photos and things that require no more ability than understanding WHAT looks good.  But I don't really feel like I have the ability to MAKE something that looks good, as you will see.

Even though I know I'm not good, I still wanted to do it.  Because I thought it would be somewhat of a fun experience to do something that I would never otherwise do.  And as Van Gogh said "If you hear a voice within you say 'I cannot paint' then by all means paint."  I definitely heard that voice.  I haven't taken an art class since I was required to in middle school.  And I don't think I've even attempted to doodle a picture since then.

So earlier this year, Alyssa and I went coloring book shopping together.  I had resigned myself to buying a Hello Kitty or Spongebob coloring book, since I realize that is falls in line more with the target audience's interests, but we were actually able to find the cutest coloring books at Barnes and Noble!  Someone somewhere realized there may be a few older people who enjoy coloring pretty designs and not tacky cartoon characters, and we found a series of animal and flower coloring books with beautiful designs.  She picked the bird book and I picked the cat book.  The funny thing is that, at the time, I wasn't very interested in cats.  But over the course of the year I became somewhat of a cat lady.  So it suited me well.

Here are some of my masterpieces:

I also bought some paint at the nearby paint store and painted a picture.  I'm not proud of it, but I'm at least about as good as I was in 8th grade art class.  Brian said if I didn't tell people I did it for my bucket list, they might ask me if my little cousin or nephew had drawn it.  Ha!  But it was still a fun experience.  (By the way, it's a cat and bouquet of flowers, if you can't figure it out.)

On a completely unrelated topic, I finally was able to go to Melting Pot.  And the timing was perfect!  Of course, Amy (who made reservations) knew this and told them when we would be "celebrating my engagement and my birthday."  Mostly she told them this, though, so we could convince them to apply her serving discount to me and Brian-- which they did!  Justin came along, as well, and we dressed up and went on a double date.

For those who don't know, Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant.  And it was definitely a restaurant designed for people like me!  I love anything that involves dipping, and I love cheese and potatoes and mushrooms and bread and most of the things they served us.  I don't usually like chocolate too much, but they had peanut butter chocolate, bananas fosters white chocolate (and I love bananas) and plenty of fruit.  So the whole thing was incredibly delicious.  Obviously, it was also incredibly expensive, which is why I never ever would have gone there if I hadn't put it on my bucket list.   But I'm really glad I did!  I don't think I have ever gone to an expensive restaurant before, and what better time than with two of my closest friends and my fiance the week between my proposal and my birthday.  It was definitely a good time to celebrate!  And I had a really good time. :)

Countdown: 2 left!!

#35 Grow a Vegetable

Those who know my family pretty well might be surprised that I am in no way a green thumb.  I spent almost my entire life growing up in a little neighborhood in the country, and my parents fully embraced the country lifestyle.  My yard is filled with wildflowers my dad planted, lilac bushes, daisies, and a row of apple trees.  Every year my family makes a trip to the greenhouse to buy seasonal plants to cover our back deck and the steps in front of our house, as well as hanging plants to hang from the roof.  My sister planted sunflowers in our backyard and tends to a few miscellaneous flowers and vegetables over the summer, and my mom almost always buys a tomato plant.  In the very back of our house is a moderately large garden with flowers that bloom every year, like daffodils and tulips.  When I was younger, we tried planting things like carrots in that garden, and I remember digging up and eating the little orange roots well before it was time to harvest them.  We also have rhubarb plants in the very back of the lawn, and for a while I remember eating from berry bushes, as well.

While I was able to enjoy the beautiful flowers and eat the delicious fruit throughout my life, I always had little to no part in taking care of them.  Sometimes my mom would buy me a flower plant or two at the greenhouse, and I would keep it by the window of my room in a little pot.  But it almost always would die.  And I usually didn't care to do much to prevent it.  This isn't to say I'm not a responsible, nurturing person-- I've had plenty of pets to take care of over the course of my life.  Plants just weren't nearly as interesting to me.

When I initially moved out of the house, I didn't miss the country too much.  In the cities there are still plenty of trees, daffodils, tulips and lilacs.  But over time, I began to miss the over abundance of flowers and vegetables.  My remedy was buying myself flowers at the grocery store for a while, and putting them on the kitchen table or by my bed.  But when I started to pay student loans and I had less spending money, it became too expensive to continually buy short-lived flowers.

This year, I decided to buy myself a plant to take care of over the summer.  Since I spend the majority of my waking hours at Brian's, I kept it outside of his apartment.  While I hate the fact that he lives in a dirty dungeon of a basement, it actually is a really nice place to live during the summer.  The apartment is really more of a house divided into separate living spaces.  In the front yard, the caretaker planted rose bushes, and there are flowers alongside the house.  The backyard has a fenced in area where Sadie can run around.  Within this fenced in area is a bench, a few chairs and dozens of plants-- which I assume belong to several of the tenants in the building.  It was a perfect place for a tomato plant (granted the dogs wouldn't eat it), with plenty of sunshine, a garden hose, and even a large watering can someone kept outside.

I bought the plant in May, when I was sure the weather would stay warm.  It would have been a perfect time to buy it, except I got sick with the flu almost immediately after and it lasted almost two weeks.  Since I had just bought the plant and hadn't developed a routine of watering it, I completely forgot about it!  And, of course, that week was one of the most beautiful weeks we've ever had yet, with 80 degree weather and sunshine almost every day.  Not only was this a huge bummer since I was stuck inside on the couch, but my poor plant was exposed to an incredible amount of sunlight and high heat with no one to water it.  It was pretty terrible.  I finally was able to check on it after about five days and, to my surprise, the soil was wet and the plant was still alive!  One of Brian's wonderful neighbors was kind enough to water it for me-- at least a few times.  I'm sure they had no idea I was sick and they were doing me a huge favor-- they probably didn't think much of it.  But, without them, my tomato plant would definitely not have survived!

Unfortunately, even though I watered it fairly regularly afterwards (I will admit I forgot to a few times here and there), parts of it did end up wilting and dying.  So, as a whole, the tomato plant was probably less fruitful than it could have been.  But a few weeks ago, I spotted a little green tomato on the vine and it has already grown to be a fairly significant size!

My tomato has a long way to go still and I'm sure I won't be able to report a ripe red tomato before my bucket list expiration date (just over a week from today.)  But I prematurely consider this a success!  I don't think I will never be a green thumb like my parents, and I'm okay with this.  But I'm glad that I am at least capable of taking care of a small tomato plant like this one.  And maybe someday I will be able to take care of a beautiful yard of flowers and vegetables similar to my family's.  This year was a big first step in the right direction. :)

#7 Oxygen Bar, #10 Manicure, #29 Buy Dress, #37 3 Course Meal, #43 Ride Motorcycle

To make it a little less overwhelming, I decided I would try to fit most of the things I recently accomplished in one blog.  I have about two weeks left and I didn't want to have to write so much in such a short period of time!  Some of these things happened a long time ago... mostly because they were hard to write an entire blog about.  So here they are!  I'm a lot closer to being done than you probably thought!

#7 Oxygen Bar
This is one of the ones that happened a long time ago.  Of course, when I first put this on my bucket list I was aware that there was at least one in the Minneapolis/St Paul area-- the little one I've walked by a few times at the Mall of America.  I also did a little research and found another one located in uptown.  I also realized the activity was a little expensive (about $40-$50), so even though my friends initially said they were interested, I didn't necessarily expect they would actually want to pay for it in the end.  So, in the back of my mind, I figured that on Brian and my road trip extravaganza all over the southeastern United States we would be able to find at least one we could stop at.  Believe it or not, there aren't any!  In fact, there were only about 3 or 4 in the United States that I could find online that were still open-- and most of them were on the west coast.  This was surprising to me!  Mostly because out of the entire United States, I don't really think of us being one of the MOST trendy states.  Then again, oxygen bars are thought to be connected to good health, and that is something Minnesotans tend to value.

Anyway, I decided I would go to one in Minnesota after all, and I hoped my friends would still be interested in coming with.  Luckily they were! :)  I can't remember exactly why (this is why I should write my blogs right after I finish something), but we couldn't go to the one in uptown after all.  I think they closed the oxygen bar portion of the restaurant, although I could be wrong.  But we were still able to go to Mall of America and make somewhat of a girls night out of it.

Alyssa and Amy both met me there after work.  Amy decided to opt out after all, but she was allowed to sit in one of the massage chairs and watch (as long as the manager didn't stop by.)  Alyssa and I both received the full experience though, which consisted of massage chairs, relaxing music and oxygen tubes through the nose.  At the end we got to sit at an actual oxygen "bar" so we could try a variety of different "flavors", and were also served energy drinks and given head massages.  It was definitely not what I expected, but it was a lot of fun!  Oxygen bars are said by some to decrease stress, increase energy, help you concentrate, and even strengthen your immune system.  I did feel more relaxed afterwards, but then again it could have also been from the relaxing music and massage chair. :) 

We all went to a stir fry restaurant when we were done.  And partway in to dinner Alyssa and I both ended up feeling really sick.  We did order the exact same thing for dinner, though, so it could have also been related to that.  It's hard to know.

Even so, it was definitely a worthwhile experience.  I've never done anything like it before and it was a lot of fun.  Is it worth paying $50 to do it again?  Probably not.  But I'm definitely glad I tried it!

#10 Get a Manicure
Believe it or not, over the course of my life I had never had a manicure.  I've never actually had a professional pedicure either (although my friend Laura did give me and Amy one on one of our Nebraska road trips a while ago.)  The main reason I gave for this was that I was a pianist, so it was hard to be concerned about having perfect nails.  If I didn't have them cut as short as possible, my piano teacher would always yell at me.  And I've taken piano lessons from age 5 until I graduated from college.  So there was never really a time in my life I didn't have to worry about it.  For the record, you can have pretty nails and play piano-- you just can't have long nails.  It was just never worth the stress to me.  When I graduated, though, that was one of the first things I wanted to do.  And I never did!

I had a few people that wanted to do this with me when they heard about it: my friend Amy, my sister Amy, and Jeannie.  I was able to go twice this year-- once with Jeannie, once with friend Amy.  And I'm definitely willing to go again with my sister. :)  It was not what I expected at all.  In my mind, manicures were a means to an end.  You go in and leave with pretty nails.  I didn't realize that the process was meant to be somewhat of a luxury!  Between the two salons I visited, I had leg massages, foot massages, hand massages, massage chairs, paraffin wax, several oils and lotions, on top of them actually working on my nails.  And it was a lot of fun and very relaxing.  It also took a lot more time than I thought it would.  Which, in both cases, was okay since we had plenty of time to kill.  Jeannie and I ended up taking an entire day off to get mani/pedis, go shopping, get dinner, and then drinks.  It was definitely one of the most fun things on my bucket list.  And, of course, I had the most pretty nails I have ever had in my life.  I will be doing this many more times in my life I'm sure.

#29 Buy a Dress
It might seem silly that I put this on my list.  I'm 25, I've definitely been to my fair share of weddings.  And, of course, I've had dresses to wear to all of them.  There was never a problem until a couple years ago when I got my puppy, Sadie.  I think you can probably see where this is going.

Sadie was one of the most difficult dogs to potty train.  It wasn't entirely her fault.  She has always had severe anxiety problems and goes nuts when we leave her alone.  But, on top of this, she was allergic to her puppy food.  I wasn't entirely aware of this at first, but over the course of time she had several issues going to the bathroom.  As soon as she turned a year old, I immediately switched her to hypo-allergenic dog food (with salmon instead of chicken) and she hasn't had any problems.  But you can imagine how hard it would be to train a dog to go outside when, if she had to go, she had to go right at that moment!

Anyway, I had to kennel train her while I was at work.  And since I felt bad enough leaving her in her kennel 40 hours a week, I never put her in her kennel when I went to bed.  I wanted her to have as much freedom as possible.  But of course she had a few accidents during this time.

On a separate topic, a lot of my dresses were not able to be washed in washing machine-- they either had to be handwashed or dry cleaned.  So after I wore them, I put them in the laundry and they were eternally in the laundry.  At some point, I was irritated that I'd have to sort them out every couple of weeks when I did a regular load, so I put them in a separate pile on the floor of my closet.

Put two and two together and you probably know what ended up happening.  And, unfortunately, since I didn't wash these dresses regularly, I didn't realize what had happened until it had been a while and it was probably too late to save them.  I did have a couple that were not in the pile, but most of them were. :(  Since I didn't have the most money in the world right after I graduated, I didn't really shop as much as I used to.  On top of that, since I technically HAD a couple dresses, I didn't think of it as a "need" and so it took me a while to replace them.  This year, I decided I had to make it a need because with the amount of weddings and formal events I went to, I needed to have more than a couple dresses...

 

So far this year I have bought two.  The first was for a wedding I accompanied back in December.  And just a couple weeks ago I bought a summer dress.  Now that I finally have a LITTLE more money to shop, I'm hoping to buy a couple more.  Sometimes I just need to tell myself to do something, otherwise I never do it.  I'm glad I made myself do this though, because I definitely needed them more than I let myself believe. :)

#37 Make a 3 Course Meal from Scratch
There isn't TOO much to say about this one.  After much thought and pinteresting, I came up with a three course meal plan that I thought Brian and I would both enjoy.  Of course it is incredibly unhealthy as a whole, so hopefully we don't end up gaining back all the weight we have lost while we eat the leftovers the rest of this week... and maybe even next.  The funny thing is that, without realizing it, I planned a meal that was entirely meatless.  And, just a few weeks ago, we were pretty much only eating meat!  But I think we can afford to enjoy a meal like this every now and then... :)

Course 1 was mozzarella sticks.

Course 2 was 3 cheese lasagna (which is my favorite food in the world, and I had never actually spent the time to try and make it.)

Course 3 was sopapilla cheesecake-- which is basically cheesecake filling in crescent rolls, topped with butter and cinnamon sugar.

And ALL of them turned out and were incredibly delicious!  I've definitely come a LONG ways this year and hopefully I will continue to become an even better cook over time.  At this point, I have no doubt that I can do it. :)


43. Ride a Motorcycle

I've had very good experiences riding motorcycles back in high school.  Two of my closest guy friends at the time, Nick and Jesse, bought motorcycles and were nice enough to take me on a handful of rides.  All of these were memorable-- there's something completely different about riding down the same roads you take every day on a bike, rather than sitting in an enclosed box.  It was also probably memorable since these people meant a lot to me.  Regardless, it was something I've been wanting to do again for a while, but I never had the opportunity.

Jeannie and Brian tried to arrange an actual motorcycle ride for me last fall with her ex-boyfriend.  But it didn't actually work out.  And since this was someone I didn't exactly want her to keep in her life, I didn't try to encourage it later. :)  I definitely appreciated them putting the effort in to trying to make it happen, though.

This year I decided to do a little research, and I found out that you don't actually need a motorcycle license to drive a scooter-- which is a smaller version of a motorcycle.  Brian and I originally wanted to rent one when we were in Miami, but since there was so much we were trying to do in a short amount of time, we didn't end up doing it.  I was later able to find one in Minneapolis, though, and a few days ago we decided to spend a Sunday riding around the cities.

Honestly, Brian resented the idea at first and I had to somewhat bribe him to do it with me.  Later, I found out it was because he was legitimately nervous about it.  Which is understandable because he'd never been on a motorcycle before!  And I also made him drive it. :)  But once we actually left the rental shop, it was more fun than I even expected!  It was a very nice day, there wasn't much traffic, and we were able to weave our way all over the Twin Cities during the few hours we had it-- from Northeast Minneapolis to St Anthony Falls (my favorite place in Minneapolis) to Como Park and back.  By the end, Brian told me he wanted to buy a motorcycle!  So it was definitely not what he expected at all.  I would absolutely do it again and recommend it to anyone!  It was probably one of the more fun dates we have been on. :)

--

(44 down-- 6 to go!) :)

#24 Read Through the Bible in Spanish

Honestly, I can't believe I actually finished this.  When people asked me "is there one thing you're worried you won't finish in time?" this was always the first thing that I said.  To be honest, I didn't really anticipate just how long the Bible would take to read.  I have never read it all the way through in English.  Brian thought it was completely ridiculous that I would read it the first time through in Spanish-- and I definitely understand why.  In some ways, though, I thought it would be kind of a cool experience.  At this point, I am able to understand the majority of what I read in Spanish, so it wasn't as if the whole thing was jargon.  And even though I haven't read parts of the Bible, there are many parts that I have heard over and over again throughout my life, and it's a completely different experience to read it in a different language.  More than anything, though, I was hoping to improve my Spanish and I felt like reading an incredibly long book that I was relatively familiar with would help.

I have wanted to be fluent in Spanish for a really really long time.  I've been studying Spanish since high school, and have always wanted to take more classes than I was ever able to.  My first high school offered four years of Spanish and I started taking classes my freshman year so that I could make sure I was able fit them all in before I graduated.  But during my junior year I decided to transfer to a smaller high school, and I was disappointed to find out that they only offered two years of Spanish-- both of which I had already taken.  The guidance counselor tried to find an online course for me, but was never able to.

When I started college at St Olaf, I planned to take both Spanish and Russian classes.  Unfortunately, I had to drop out of my first semester of Spanish because I had registered for more credits than I could handle (something that I think I've done every single semester in college-- I have a habit of being incredibly over-ambitious...) and I chose to finish my semester of Russian instead.  By the time I transferred to Bethel my sophomore year, I had already committed to double majoring (in music and international business) and then later chose to minor in sacred music, as well.  Because of this, my class schedule was almost entirely coursework for my majors.  Even so, while my international business major only required me to take two language courses, I was able to squeeze in extra semester of Spanish before I was forced to graduate.  When I say forced, I mean they sent me a letter saying I wouldn't get financial aid if I returned the next semester, since I had already taken too many credits.  So I literally could not go back if I wanted to!  If I had been able to stay any longer, though, I was 100% sure I would have taken as many Spanish related courses as possible-- not only because it was one of the things I was most interested in learning, but also because being fluent in a language is a huge factor in whether or not you ever get an international business job.

Even though I didn't take nearly as many classes as I would have liked to, I still was able to find ways outside of school to work on Spanish.  Throughout most of college I worked at Applebees.  While I worked there I was able to befriend a lot of the Mexican cooks, who taught me new words and helped me develop the ability to converse in Spanish.  During my senior year of college, I also was able to spend a couple weeks in Nicaragua, where I taught English at elementary schools.  Since almost no one was able to speak English, I was able to learn a great deal of Spanish, even though I was only there for a short amount of time.

When I graduated, however, and started to work at Wells Fargo there were little to no opportunities to speak Spanish.  I didn't work directly with many people who spoke Spanish, unlike before, and most of the people I saw regularly knew very minimal Spanish.  I've heard many times that the best way to learn a language is surrounding yourself with people who speak it-- for instance, moving to a country that speaks Spanish.  Since that wasn't and still isn't going to be an option for a while, I figured the next best thing would be to read Spanish books.

One of my Spanish professors at Bethel had required us to buy a Spanish Bible at the beginning of the class, but we never actually read any of it.  It literally sat on my shelf for the longest time and every time I saw it I thought it would be a really good thing to read through.  I even remember telling a few people I was planning to do it right after I graduated.  The look on one of my friend's faces after I told him this stuck with me for years afterwards.  It basically said "Yeah right.  You are idealistic and unrealistic.  You are all talk.  You're never going to do it."  I was really offended by this, and it really motivated me to actually do it.  So this last year I decided I would prove him wrong.

The biggest problem is that I waited until about January to start reading it.  And my deadline was set for the end of June.  I didn't realize (until Brian told me) that most people struggle to read the English version in a year!  And I had about six months.  So I set up a reading schedule-- and ended up falling behind miserably every time I had a vacation or got sick or something else came up.  Finally, I decided to stop following the schedule and just read as much as I could at a time.  Some days I literally read it for the majority of the day.  I was just so determined to finish!

And about one week ago I finally did!  Did I gain what I was hoping from this experience?  Most definitely!  While I understood the majority of it, towards the beginning there were a few passages where I had a hard time understanding what was going on.  Luckily, my dad had read through Genesis-1 Samuel with me when I was younger, so I could piece together what was happening based on what I already knew.  But it was really exciting when, over time, I began to understand almost every single word.  My vocabulary has definitely, noticeably grown.

Brian makes me fun of me, because I did learn a lot of words that I will probably never actually use.  Like priest, and holy sacrifice, and cow fat.  Although one day I went to the grocery store with him, he showed me this animal part and asked if I knew what it was.  I didn't know the English word, but underneath it said "grasa" in Spanish-- which I had learned from reading the Old Testament: "fat."  It was pretty funny!  Besides that, though, I definitely learned a lot of words and the correct way to phrase certain things and even a few grammar rules that I hadn't been aware of before.  Would I say that I am fluent in Spanish?  Not even close!  There is so much left for me to learn.  But this was a huge step in the right direction.

While it has been way more difficult than it should have been to take Spanish courses, I am proud at how far I've come on my own.  More than anything, it's been interesting to see how much incentive I have to keep learning and making progress without teachers or professors pushing me to.  It's definitely the first time in my life that that hasn't been the case.  Hopefully if I keep working hard enough, I will be able to consider myself "fluent" someday.  So far I'm well on my way to reaching that goal! :)

#23 Try Yoga, #33 Run 30 Miles, #32 2000 Situps

I've never been much of an athlete.  I'm honestly not really ashamed to admit it-- I feel like I have plenty of skills in other areas.  It wasn't entirely my fault either: I never really had much of an opportunity to participate in many organized sports while I was growing up-- my dad didn't really want me to be involved in them.  And by the time I was old enough to choose what I wanted to be involved in, I wasn't really good enough to join any of the sports teams in my relatively big school district.  I could be bitter about it, but even if I had the choice I don't think I would have wanted to be very involved in sports.  Like I said, I have natural abilities in other things-- but not really that.

For the most part, I think I was a relatively active kid anyway.  I spent a lot of time running around outside, and when I got older I used to go on a lot of long bike rides.  But I never intentionally or regularly exercised.  And when you get older, it inevitably becomes harder to find time as your life becomes more structured and busy.  During college especially, I attempted to start a routine and run regularly.  But it was nearly impossible during some semesters when I was trying to balance work, homework, school and music activities and barely even had time to sleep.  I figured that when I graduated I would have all the time in the world and I'd join a gym-- but that was definitely not true, and I never did.

This last year, though, I decided I needed to make drastic changes to my lifestyle if I wanted to live a long healthy life.  Many of the changes I made were diet related- as I wrote about before- and overall I was able to lose about 12 pounds!  Which I had never done before.  But I also made an effort to spend more time exercising.

The overall goal was to make working out a part of my weekly routine.  I didn't set incredibly high goals for myself-- I wasn't trying to train for a marathon or anything.  I just wanted to try to fit things like this in to my lifestyle.  Honestly, I don't think I actually accomplished this.  In my crazy, extremely busy, ever-changing life, it was incredibly difficult to do things consistently.  But I still think that I gained a lot from the time I put in.

The first thing I tried to incorporate was running.  Like I said, it wasn't an entirely new habit-- I've gone through phases in life where I ran every other day, and then phases where I didn't run at all.  It had been only been a few months since I had been in that habit, so it wasn't too difficult to pick it up again.  At first I used the free fitness center in my apartment complex.  But I spent so much time at Brian's place with him and my pets that it ended up being even more expensive to drive back and forth than it was to pay for a membership to a gym by his apartment.  So I joined LA Fitness and worked out with my friend Amy several times.  I've honestly never worked out with other people before then.  I'm usually too embarrassed to let my friends see how out of shape I am. :)  But it actually gave me much more incentive to go, and more incentive to meet my goals.  She also encouraged me to do things that I normally wouldn't have done by myself-- like lift weights.  So overall it was a very good experience!

The gym itself was a terrible terrible experience.  I was harrassed repeatedly by a sales person who didn't seem to realize that I had already signed up (he left voicemails on my phone about 15 times-- no exaggeration) and then I was repeatedly harrassed by a personal trainer who wanted to work with me.  I paid on a weekly basis, so I canceled my membership when I went on my two week vacation... and of course they charged me for an extra week.  It wasn't a misunderstanding, either, because they sent me an email outlining what I still owed and when my membership was canceled.  And then proceeded to take more money out of my account.  So I filed a claim, got my money back, and put a stop payment on the company... and decided it wasn't worth it to be a member after all. :(

It took me a few months to start running again.  I initially thought I would run outside since the weather was starting to be really nice again, but I realized I have a much harder time running outside than on a treadmill-- I need to distract myself with TV/music otherwise I focus the entire time on how much I hate running.  I just kept putting it off and putting it off until I only had a few weeks left before my lease was up.  So I decided I had to finish before then.  And then of course I got the flu which turned in to bronchitis and lasted two weeks.  And by the time I was feeling well enough, I had about three consecutive days to finish the last 6 miles.  Which is doable-- I always run 2 miles every time I run.  But between the stress of cleaning and moving out and still feeling somewhat under the weather, I was worried I wouldn't feel up to coming in every single day.  So what did I do?  I ran all 6 miles at once!  Which may not seem like much, especially to people who train for half marathons, etc.  But I had never run more than 2 miles, and I had not run at all for a couple months.  I have no idea how I did it.  So while I didn't end up developing a routine like I was hoping, I proved to myself that I am capable of running long distances and pushing myself WAY further than I had been before.

While I wasn't able to run as consistently as I wanted, I was able to set up a weekly yoga routine.  I always loved the idea of taking yoga classes-- I knew it involved a lot of stretching, clearing your mind, and relieving stress and I thought that would be something that would very much benefit me.  Toward the beginning of my bucket list, I bought a yoga video for myself-- just to see what it was like.  I did it once, and realized that it was not a one time thing.  It was something you trained yourself to do and work on over a period of time.  There was never really a good time for me to do it, though.  My dog would always climb on top of me while I was doing poses at Brian's, and I knew Brian would laugh at me if he ever found me doing it when he came home from work.

And then my work began hiring a yoga instructor to teach classes once a week after work.  It was only about $5 a week and they supplied the mats and everything else.  You just needed to show up.  At first I was too shy to go-- most of the people who went were from a different department, so I didn't really know anyone.  But I eventually decided I would go anyway.  And it has been an awesome experience!  It was way more work than I imagined-- there were a couple days that I went home and realized every single muscle in my body was too sore to move.  But, as a whole, it makes me feel really good.  I can see how much I have improved since I have started to go.  And I also was able to meet a few people in my office that I probably would have never otherwise talked to.  What I especially like about yoga, though, is that I look forward to it-- which is something I never do when I'm working out in any other way.  It's something that I can see myself WANTING to do consistently.  So if I gained anything from my "exercise" goals this year, it would definitely be adding this to my life.

I also completed my 2000 crunches.  And then stopped when I reached my goal-- mostly because between that and yoga, my stomach was constantly sore.  I felt like yoga was sufficient in working on my core anyway-- especially when they began offering it twice a week for the same price.  Even though I didn't incorporate that "routine" into my life either, I actually can see a difference in the shape of my stomach!  Between this and losing weight, it has been really encouraging to see for the first time RESULTS after working so hard.  It gives me so much more incentive to keep going.

Overall, I was able to accomplish each little goal, but I wasn't able to accomplish the overall goals that I hoped to incorporate in my lifestyle.  I was, however, able to take so many more things out of these experiences than I envisioned.  Like I said before, I proved to myself that I am capable of so much more than I gave myself credit for-- I am able to run several miles at a time, I am able to physically change the shape of my body.  So while incorporating the routine in to my life may be a very long-term process, I have so much more incentive to continue than I ever have before.  And that in itself is life changing.