Thirty before 30

The opening scene to Garden State (one of my top three favorite movies ever) shows Z also known as Zach Braff sitting on a plane that's inevitably crashing. As oxygen masks fall from above and people scream and cry, Z sits amidst the chaos--unaffected. Last night I was on a plane that experienced a mechanical failure shortly after takeoff. Not to compare this with an actual plane crash or even the probability that this plane would plummet into the swampy Floridian earth below, but I didn't find myself sitting there calmly, uninfluenced by the impending doom I [could] have faced. I'm not trying to sound dramatic, or claim that I did, for a second think the plane was crashing, but what did cross my mind during that emergency were too little words: What If? Mainly what if this plane suddenly, freakishly does crash and I die? What if I can't do all the things that I wanted to or had planned to do? What if I can never tell all the people I love that I love them, ever again? And so today in keeping with the theme of "lists" that this blog has seem to have taken on, I am listing some things I hope to accomplish before I die or if I'm really lucky, before I'm 30. In no particular order:

1. Finish visiting all 7 continents
2. Run (and finish) a marathon
3. Go back to Paris and spend some time in the Louvre
4. Teach art somewhere, perhaps college. Or graduate school.
5. Reconcile the relationship I have with my mother
6. Learn to speak Spanish, not fluently, but well enough to have a conversation
7. Finish paying back my student loan
8. Sky dive
9. Re-read all the books I "read" in high school or college i.e. Great Expectations
10. Learn how to make mom's pie crust, mashed potatoes and chocolate chip cookies
11. Cook a Thanksgiving dinner
12. Touch chicken and there by...learn to cook it myself
13. Visit Yellowstone
14. Volunteer more. Perhaps volunteer abroad.
15. Find a way to honor my grandfather while he's still alive
16. Pyramids, Parthenon, Acropolis, Taj Mahal, The Kremlin
17. Watch all the movies on AFI's Top 100 List (78 to go)
18. See Bjork in concert
19. Attend a world cup, the Olympics, and Wimbledon
20. Become a certified aerobics instructor
21. Learn how to juggle
22. Worry Less
23. Swim in the Dead, Red and Black seas
24. Write more poetry
25. Get married
26. Spend Christmas somewhere tropical
27. Learn how to surf
28. Scuba dive
29. Send my parents on a vacation
30. Own a boat, a few tubes and some water skis