#life list

In light of recent events (aka the horrible incident that happened in Colorado around midnight last night) I have decided it is indeed time to talk about life, this journey, and what it means.

To be quite honest with you, I think everyone is fully aware that life is short, but a lot of people take that for granted. Far too many people also take life way too seriously. As annoying and overused the phrase “YOLO” is, it is extremely true. As far as we know, you do only live once, so make it worthwhile. Life is too short for regrets, so even if you do regret something, put it behind you and move on. Stop thinking about and living in the past. Live in the present. Live in the present, because this is where you are now, this is the youngest you will ever be again, and frankly, if you don’t you will probably wind up regretting these moments too. I have made a lot of decisions in the past where I am not like “well shit I should have never done [or said] that” but then I put it behind me. Screw regret. It’s just our mind’s way of haunting us.

I was talking to one of my friends today about work, telling him how busy I have been all week working overtime to get everything done that needed to be done. He’s usually not serious - always the one making jokes and the one we go to for a laugh, not advice - but he said something serious and seriously true - “you have the rest of your life to be an adult. You’re in your prime, have fun and do what you want”. That’s something we tend to forget. We’re so busy with school and/or work that we forget to be a kid sometimes. We forget that this is our time - with no kids, no bills to pay, no worries other than school and work - to have fun. This is our time to be adventurous, to stay up all night and have a movie marathon just because we can, to make our dreams a reality. 

That’s what this whole bucket list thing is about. It’s about taking things that seem impossible and so far out of our reach, and make them possible. To make our wildest dreams come true. If you would have told me when I started high school that by the time I finished my first year of college I’d have started rowing, driven a four-wheeler, and most importantly, found friends who I can be my complete self around and not care what anyone thinks, then I would have told you you’re effing insane and should probably check yourself into a mental institution. Five years ago I worried about so much - what people thought of me, how my hair looked (god forbid I went au natural), what I got on every single test and quiz, how I acted. I thought I had to be perfect. I think part of it is how I was raised. I love my parents, but there came a point where I just stopped listening to them. I didn’t rebel, but I realized that my parents are the parents that push me to do more and strive for more - nothing is ever good enough. I realized that I could never make them (or anyone) happy if I didn’t first make myself happy. The more I focused on my own personal happiness, the more happy my parents became as well (shocker, shocker  right? haha). 

This whole incident at the movie theater in Colorado is a horrible reminder of how short life is. We never know when God will decide it is our time to go - whether it will be tragically or naturally. He has a plan for each of us (sorry I’m not sorry for the God-talk you non-believers out there, but this is my blog, I’ll say what I want ;] ) and no one, not even doctors, know what that is. It’s like the infamous case of a doctor telling a patient they have x amount of time to live, and then they wind up living longer. No human knows, only God does. I’m not in any way saying God’s plan for James Holmes was for him to be personally responsible for the largest shooting in U.S. history, killing a dozen people and injuring dozens more, but I am saying people are taken from us all too soon sometimes, because loss teaches us a painful reminder - one that we need. No one goes to a movie theater thinking “Hm, maybe there will be a mass shooting tonight.” There was a 6-year-old, 4-year-old, and 4 month-old baby in that audience. If my parents had taken me to a midnight premier of a movie when I was 6 and I got to wear a costume to boot, I’d have told every kid I knew and every kid I saw. I would never think of something like that could ever happen. As if kids weren’t scared enough of the world, add witnessing a mass murder. I can almost guarantee those kids, along with many other witnesses are going to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The world? Yeah it’s kind of a mess. But of course it is. I researched this guy and it sounds like he didn’t really have many friends, and when he got to Colorado to get his PhD it sounds like he didn’t have any. He went on a downward spiral. He had no friends there, his grades dropped, he started to withdrawal from school, and he started to buy guns. Humans need friends - psychology will tell you that. It’s kind of hard to believe, but in all honesty if he had some friends in Colorado, there’s a chance this tragedy would not have happened. The same goes for the Virginia Tech shooter. There is a recurring trend here, which really gets me thinking about friendship. Everyone deserves a friend. Even just 1 good friend. My friends keep my feet on the ground, and the same could have rung true for those 2 men. But instead, these days (along with many others) will go down in infamy.  

“Life is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life.” -Anonymous

Went to college and as it turns out the person I became best friends with owns four-wheelers. So of course when I went to go visit her over Christmas break, she took me four-wheeling and let me drive. Then made fun of me because I was so cautious, but hell, there were a lot of trees around haha sorry I’m not sorry. It was still awesome.

~Marissa

Dunzo.

With our 1st year of college behind us, I think it’s safe to say we both left our comfort zones and tried something new.

For me, a girl who hadn’t been in athletics since my freshman year of high school, I became a Division 1 athlete. In high school I had reached that point in my life where I just said I was done with sports. Growing up I was always involved with sports, so to my parents this came as a shock. I always had that feeling like something was missing from my life though. When I got to college there was a meeting for the rowing team - no strings attached and more importantly, no experience necessary. If you wanted to get involved and try it, that was great, but you could also decide it wasn’t for you. After the meeting, I definitely had a feeling it was something I needed to try. After my very first practice on the water, I was hooked. That’s the thing about rowing - it just gets you. Obviously it’s not for everyone - 4 am alarms, 5:30 am rows in 30 degree weather (rain or shine…well more like blackness as the sun has yet to come up), a body that is constantly in pain no matter how many stretches you do to try to relieve it, lactic acid buildup in your muscles (particuarly your legs) from pushing your muscles to near failure, no social life, every hour of my day is schedule, and in case morning practices weren’t enough there are always those infamous 2-a-days - yeah, this is what I have come to willingly put myself through. 
I would definitely say I learned a lot about myself via rowing. Never in my life did I ever think I could do this. Rowing is just as mental as it is physical. You have to be trained to learn that your mind will tell you to stop, but your body will keep going, you just have to push through the hell. Yeah it sucks when my entire body is in an extreme amount of pain, but it feels awesome after when you’re on your rowing high (and when you get to eat a bajillion calories a day because rowing is one of the highest calorie-burning sports. It’s just my excuse to eat all the time and only get semi-judged for it.)

As for Audrey, she auditioned and performed in a play - something she said she would do in high school but never got time for. And she also ran a half marathon…in freaking Disney World with the characters along the sides cheering the runners on. Lucky bitch. But I can’t speak too much for her because we go to different schools so lord only knows if she tried anything else new (oh and she brought her best friend some cuppy cakes to one of her races near Audrey’s school hehe yeah she’s my favorite person :p )

~Marissa

We constantly add stuff to it, but here’s what we have so far:

1. Go skydiving
2. Go wingdiving in the Netherlands
3. Swim with dolphins
4. Go to the zoo again [done]
5. Go to the aquarium again [done]
6. Travel to Australia
7. Swim with sharks in Australia
8. Travel to Germany
9. Travel to London
10. Go surfing again
11. Go in a wind tunnel
12. Take a road trip
13. Travel to Canada
14. Shoot a gun
15. Inspire someone
16. Be a good role model
17. Go SCUBA diving again
18. Go snorkeling
19. Make a big donation to charity
20. Meet someone famous and have a conversation with them
21. Go to the Olympics
22. Go to at least 1 FIFA world cup game
23. Make a difference
24. Send a message in a bottle
25. Get a dog (Marissa)
26. Run up the Philadelphia art museum steps like Rocky
27. Give a stranger a $5 bill
28. Say “yes” to every yes or no question for a day
29. Drive a boat
30. Learn how to sail
31. Fall in love
32. Get married
33. Go to a world series game
34. Go to college and graduate [1st part done]
35. Graduate from High School [done]
36. Attend a PSU football game
37. Run a marathon
38. Do a triathlon
39. Do the polar bear plunge
40. Meet a famous athlete
41. Go to Seattle
42. Pet an elephant (Marissa)
43. Go cliff diving
44. Peaceful protest something
45. Backpack through Europe
46. Speak in a bunch of different accents in a conversation to confuse people
47. Eat breakfast at Blue Moon Cafe
48. Climb a mountain
49. Learn how to do a snowboard trick (Marissa)
50. Take a spontaneous trip
51. Go to a midnight premier  of a movie [done]
52. Have a food fight
53. Try luge and/or skeleton
54. Tailgate [done]
55. Go to an Army-Navy football game [done]
56. Get into college [done]
57. Zipline
58. Flip into a pool
59. Try trapeze
60. Run around in the snow with shorts and a t-shirt on (Marissa)
61. Get a picture on a boat and have the caption say “I’m on a boat!” [done]
62. Successfully get off of a ski lift (Marissa)
63. Stay overnight in the ice hotel
64. See Macklemore in concert
65. Travel to Atlantis
66. Go to Sundance Film Festival
67. Dress like a hipster for a day
68. See the Northern Lights in person
69. Go to the color-by-number museum in PDX and submit my own “artwork”
70. Climb the Sydney Bridge in Australia
71. See the Great Barrier Reef in person
72. Travel to Greece
73. Be in 2 places at once
74. Go to the trampoline park in Denmark
75. Dress up as Harry Potter characters for a whole day (other than Halloween)
76. Go to Georgetown Cupcakes and (of course) get some dang cupcakes! [partially done - had the cuppycakes, Audrey went, Marissa didn’t]
77. Get a tattoo (Audrey)
78. Donate blood (Audrey)
79. Get a book published
80. Reenact the “THIS IS SPARTA!” scene from 300
81. Don’t use 1 arm for a day (not trying to be offensive with this one so please don’t take it the wrong way - it’s just a way to help us realize how good we have it and how we should appreciate what we have)
82. Go to a Dropkick Murphys concert
83. Watch rehabbed turtles be returned to sea
84. Let a floating lantern up into the sky
85. Stay at the Poseidon Undersea Resort in Fiji
86. Cheer on random strangers in public
87. Say hi and wave to random strangers in public [done]
88. Try something new at college [done]
89. Try Archery (Audrey: Complete - Marissa: Not Complete)
90. Drive a four-wheeler [completed]