Sash and I had an interesting discussion about turning 21, between the mad rush of the 7am fire drill and bussing to the quad for ambassadors bright and early. It was a snippet of a conversation really but seriously got me thinking.
I have a life list: I need one to function because I need to know for certain where I stand with anything and what to expect. But this things to do before you’re 21 thing is quite fun because you are allowed to put in stupid yet personally significant things in that don’t quite work out on a life list. So what so I want to do before I turn 21. This I think (more than the myth of the 18 and you’re an adult) is the birthday. Part of me thinks it’s going to be just another birthday like an 18th which was surprisingly anti-climatic. When you hit 13, 16 and 18- you wake up on your birthday and expect the world to have changed or at least shifted a little to your favour but in reality it’s any old birthday where you do birthday stuff. I suppose you even expect that you wake up miraculously different but all in all these significant birthday are generally a let-down. So maybe November of 2008 I can shatter the myth of significant birthdays entirely but until then I figured no harm in making a little list. So here it goes in no particular order:
1) See a band I love in concert: Bon Jovi! (I *heart* Jon Bon Jovi- sad I know but come on…), Greenday, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Live, maybe even Fallout Boy 
2) Watch all the films on my Must-See-Films list and get started on a new one. (I need a few things that aren’t too ambitious!)
3) Read all the books on my Must-Read-Books list and get started on a new one. (Ditto)
4) Choose a career that I’d love to spend the rest of my life doing (get into honours first! Yikes!!)
5) Finish this long winded thing I started in 2001! (maybe if you knew me very very well personally you would know what it is- ok so that’s a grand total of maybe 3 people but anyway)
6) Travel to at least one new and entirely unconventional city.
7) Plan a decadent and absolutely unforgettable collective 21 bash for Next Summer seeing as I along with most of my favourite people turn 21 next year. (I wonder if this one will work out…)
Take up Latin lessons (I’ve always had this very curious fascination with Latin and would totally take it up if it can be done in Colombo over the summer)
9) Attempt to paint and complete a (6 x 4) foot canvas or a large mural
10) Visit the British Museum and Madame Tussaud’s
11) Learn to bake a positively sinful chocolate cake really well.
12) Create a studio space at home
13) Make the effort to keep a nice and flowery house plant without killing it.
14) Take up some serious photography again
15) Paint a self-portrait Frida Kahlo style
16) Exorcise the word “like” from my vocabulary
17) Stop using plastic bags altogether!
18) Find a cause I really believe in and do something about it.
19) Oh I should probably get my driver’s license at some point Never got around to it this summer…
20) Take a road trip (I don’t really know how practical this is but no harm in putting it on paper)
21) See three places in Sri Lanka I’ve never been to before.
Goes without saying that the invisible 22) Is to actually make a real effort to do these things.
What’s on your list of things to do before your next significant birthday?
[...] here for [...]
[...] been to the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala before December 2007. True I was progressing on my 21 things to do before I turn 21 list by seeing a new place in Sri Lanka. I wasn’t too enthusiastic- nature really is not [...]
IVE GOT AN ELEPHANT!!!!
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