The Goals

  1. Get accepted to BYU.
  2. Graduate with a Bachelor’s degree.
  3. Publish one of my books.
  4. Write a novel.
  5. Go through the temple.
  6. Get more involved in Family History.
  7. Publish my journals.
  8. Use my passport in Europe.
  9. Use my passport in South America.
  10. Use my passport in Asia.
  11. Take a cake decorating class.
  12. Successfully sew a complete project from start to finish.
  13. Plan a wedding.
  14. Lose weight.
  15. Own several pairs of glasses.
  16. Be comfortable in my own skin.
  17. Have a black baby (adoption or…)
  18. Learn how to make Thai Yellow Curry.
  19. Learn how to French braid my hair.
  20. Learn a new language.
  21. Go on a cruise.
  22. Travel the East Coast.
  23. Buy a house.
  24. Restore a farmhouse.
  25. Develop my own “style.”
  26. Take art classes.
  27. Learn how to make my own blog backgrounds.
  28. Get a Henna tattoo.
  29. Relearn how to play the flute.
  30. Read the Book of Mormon (again).
  31. Index 5000 names.
  32. Find a work out I enjoy doing.
  33. Read Don Quixote.
  34. Read Count of Monte Cristo.
  35. Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
  36. Reread the Giver.
  37. Have a successful website (hopefully selling my books)
  38. Learn Calligraphy.
  39. Design a wedding invitation that is actually used for someone.
  40. Go to Florida to visit Jessica.
  41. Go to Canada.
  42. Go to Mexico.
  43. Get health insurance.
  44. Get married.
  45. Have babies.
  46. Feel comfortable in a bathing suit.
  47. Give blood.
  48. Donate plasma.
  49. Do my own taxes.
  50. Save money for a trip.
  51. Buy a new car.
  52. Be quoted.
  53. See every Cary Grant movie.
  54. Give money to a homeless person – whether or not they will use it on booze.
  55. Pay for a stranger’s meal at a restaurant.
  56. Take Sally Doll out to dinner.
  57. Learn all the words to a rap song, and “sing” it successfully.
  58. Maintain a vegetable garden.
  59. Buy a new camera.
  60. Own a great set of pots and pans - use them.
  61. Read the Ensign cover to cover for a year.
  62. Memorize the words to On the Street Where You Live and I Could Have Danced All Night.(My Fair Lady)
  63. Play the flute in Church as a musical number.
  64. Give a Book of Mormon to someone.
  65. Whiten my teeth.
  66. Keep my room clean for a month.
  67. Survive a media fast.
  68. Develop a testimony of fasting.
  69. Play organized basketball again.
  70. Follow a team from beginning of the season to the end of the season.
  71. Write my parents’ memoirs.
  72. Convert five people to The Hunger Games
  73. Successfully care for a plant.
  74. Finish my stats class.
  75. Go to bed by 10 p.m. every night for a week.
  76. Make it to Church 10 minutes early every week for a month.
  77. Learn about a political issue and follow it or help do something about it.
  78. Take a stand about something important.
  79. Give my phone number to a guy.
  80. Go on a second date.
  81. Stand up for myself.
  82. Create a budget – and stick to it.
  83. Go skinny dipping.
  84. Go horseback riding.
  85. Find a reason to dress up in a period costume.
  86. Go to a show in Vegas.
  87. Kiss a guy with an accent.
  88. Attend every temple in the U.S.
  89. See Mackenzie play basketball.
  90. Be in Ohio for Thanksgiving again.
  91. Visit my Grandma and Grandpa’s graves over Memorial Day.
  92. Wear a hat in public.
  93. Put blue or pink or red in my hair.
  94. Learn how to cook a tofu dish.
  95. Take a friend to King’s Island.
  96. Bring a “friend” to my family reunion.
  97. Move out of Utah.
  98. Go to New York.
  99. Stay at a Bed & Breakfast.
  100. Pray more.
  101. Volunteer for the Red Cross.
  102. Give up chocolate for a month.
  103. Graduate with honors.
  104. Earn my Associate's degree.
  105. Read a biography for every U.S. President.
  106. Keep a personal deadline - the first time.
  107. Finish something early.

Monday, February 15, 2010

1. Get Accepted to BYU

This is the first goal that I ever made for myself that I can actually remember. Well... I sort of remember. Because I'm not really certain when I actually decided that I wanted to go to BYU, I just have always known that I did.

I started joining clubs and looking for opportunities to serve and lead and do all sorts of things in elementary school. What did I think I would accomplish in elementary school in order to get me to BYU? I'm not certain. BUT, I did things like be Post Master of our Postal Service. It was really fun, I got to go and sort the mail that we sent from classroom to classroom with stamps that we designed and deliver to each of the students. I did Peer Mediation and we had to train for a week and then would walk classroom to classroom to make sure there were no disputes during recess, or walk around the playground wearing awful blue vests. During indoor recess, it was a pass to go and visit other friends...but that is besides the point. I did it for the recommendations. I helped my art teacher during my recess, organizing her classroom and helping putting things away or setting up for the afternoon classes. I did the crossing guard. I joined the band.

When I started junior high, I began to see the social structure of my high school take place. I still tried to join clubs. I did band for 7th and most of 8th grade. I was in choir. I did the art club. I made sure I got good grades in everything I did. I helped in the guidance office and decorated the birthday bulletin board. I set the goal to go to Edison during my high school years so that I could earn my Associate's degree before I made it to BYU.

In high school, I took every calling I received at church pretty seriously. President of the Beehives, counselor in the Mia Maids and secretary in the Laurels (where I unofficially ran the whole show...let's be honest) and it was all for BYU. I joined Key Club and the National Honor Society. I volunteered at Riverside basketball games and helped at the Kiwani's Pancake Breakfast. I got a job - it didn't ever make me money enough to take out to school, but it did drive me to and from Edison. Edison, where I had been planning to go for years and was detained. I literally had to fight my way in - but I did it, because it would take me one step closer to BYU. I made sure I got good grades. I enrolled in Latin, because it was going to help my vocabulary. I avoided parties and...let's face it, friends. Because it didn't matter, anyway, I was going to be leaving for Utah in just a few years.

When I started applying for schools, I couldn't bring myself to apply anywhere else. I made sure that I was ready for every deadline. I made sure that I was worthy to pass the ecclesiastical endorsement required for BYU. I applied to every scholarship I could find. I finished my AA at Edison the summer before I left. I was accepted to Liberty University, but it was the only school that didn't require an application fee - and thus, the only school that I actually finished an application. I never finished my OSU application. I don't know if I would have got in - because I stopped filling it out the day I got my acceptance letter to BYU.

I was working at Edison at the time, and my mom called me to tell me that I had received a letter from the Admissions department. I wanted to know. I wanted to know BAD. But I was afraid. I had been denied access to Edison at first, and I didn't want to relive that moment when I cried and kicked a hole in the wall... but I knew I couldn't wait. I had her open the envelope. After all, I had done EVERYTHING I could possibly do in order to get into BYU. Certainly they wouldn't reject me. I had prayed about it. And if Heavenly Father didn't want me to go, I knew I wasn't going to be accepted and I would have to deal with that. But if I was accepted, then it was because He wanted me in Utah.

I cried anyway. It was everything I wanted. My ten year goal was finally becoming reality and I moved to Provo, Utah in August of 2004.
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