thoughts
Those of you who know me are already aware of my love of setting goals for myself and then completely failing to follow through. So, in keeping as on-brand as possible, I came up with a list of things I would like to accomplish in my 30s. However, I’ve given myself a slight out. I am in no way obligated to succeed at any of the items on this list, I just have to attempt them. My hope is that by going a little easy on myself, I’ll do a better job of holding onto the motivation to actually achieve a goal or two.
Now, in order for this to be a true Jacinta list, many of the items on it are ridiculous and impractical. But, it’s my list. If you want normal goals, make your own list. 1. Keep a daily journal. I used to keep a diary when I was a pre-teen, but eventually started making up stories about my life because I was so bored with the mundanity of my reality. Here’s to hoping that keeping a journal (which sounds far more adult than “diary”) will be more successful, and honest, this time around. 2. Practice my various instruments once a week. In 2020, I attempted to practice the piano and guitar twice a week and was moderately successful. Hopefully I’ll practice everything more often than once a week, but this way I won’t feel as stressed during busy weeks to find time to squeeze in another practice. (I also may or may not have bought a ukulele. And a harmonica. Because, really, can you ever have too many instruments?) 3. Submit a piece of writing once a week. This is something I need to get way better about. I have several poems and a few short stories finished, so it’s time to find them homes outside of the saved folder on my computer. So far I have three poems and one short story published, so we’ll see if I can add to that significantly over the next decade. 4. Pray a novena three times a month. When I tried to say the rosary and the chaplet every day in 2020, I discovered that I really enjoyed taking that extra time out of my day to pray. So now I’m trying to do it again, but I’m going to pray them in novenas in order to pray with more specific intentions. I don’t know if I’ll get in three every month, but I’ll do my best. 5. Post on the blog once a month. Those of you who actually follow this blog know better than anyone how bad I am about posting frequently. I had the best intentions when I started it, but I tend to forget I even have a blog sometimes. But I’ve made myself a chart to keep track of how often I post, so maybe that will remind me to actually write and post something on a semi-regular basis. 6. Learn to braid hair. If you know me in real life, then you’ve seen my hair and know that the most I can handle is a lopsided ponytail. My sister and one of my nieces are great at braiding hair, though, so I am planning to ask them to teach me how to do it. (In all honesty, I keep seeing TikToks of women doing Viking-style braids and I am obsessed. So that’s the real motivation here.) 7. Finish my Max novel. Just over three years ago, I started writing a novel about a cult leader who is also a serial killer. Along the way, though, I got sidetracked by researching cults and serial killers, and ended up neglecting the actual writing. You’d think that finishing a novel in the next ten years should be easy, but for me, it’s not. Because I still procrastinate like I’m back in college. 8. Finish my teenagers novel. During my senior year of high school, I wrote a trilogy filled with characters very loosely based off myself and my friends. Going back and reading it as an adult, I realize how terrible it was, but also recognize that it has potential. So I’m giving the whole trilogy a complete rewrite to see if I can make it significantly better. 9. Finish my werewolf trilogy. I had a dream a few years ago that was just a room in New Orleans with the curtains blowing in the breeze from the balcony and a woman singing in French. And from that dream, I started writing a Steampunk-esque trilogy about supernatural creatures facing off against humans who hate them. I have all three books completely outlined; now I just have to sit down and do the actual writing. 10. Finish my Ripper novel. The last time I attempted NaNoWriMo (where you write a whole novel in the month of November), I failed spectacularly. But I also got a few thousand words of a book that constantly shifts perspectives and also features a character who may or may not be Jack the Ripper. I’m a little bit in love with one of the characters in this book (not the Jack the Ripper character, surprisingly enough), so I’d like to see where else I can go with it. 11. Find a literary agent. This is something I should have started working on years ago. But I figure now that I actually have a full-length novel finished, I should probably put a little more effort into making this happen. 12. Perform in a musical. I haven’t been in a musical since high school. I auditioned for two in college, but the director at the time was one of those people who already has the cast decided before anyone even shows up to try out. But I really miss being on stage, and I’m hoping that I can get my anxiety under control enough to start performing again. 13. Cook an entire meal -- appetizers to desserts -- for others without help. Cooking has never been one of my favorite things, but that’s mostly because I live by myself. It takes longer to cook something and clean everything afterward than it takes to actually eat the meal. Because of this, I usually just throw something in the microwave or go out for meals. But I want to learn how to cook real food, and I figure that cooking for other people will make the experience more enjoyable. Or more stressful. We’ll see. 14. Meet Karen and Georgia. The My Favorite Murder podcast is one of the few things that never fails to cheer me up. I love listening to Karen and Georgia, and attending one of their live shows is one of the highlights of my life. So once we get the pandemic under control and people start touring again, I plan to not only attend another live show, but also try to get meet-and-greet passes. 15. Put more energy into maintaining important friendships. I don’t want to be one of those people who is only a good friend to those I see every day. I’m decent about keeping up with text conversations, but I want to go beyond that and actually visit some of the friends I don’t get to see as often. And in between visits, I’ll try to send letters or maybe actually talk on the phone to some of them. (Okay, let’s not get too crazy. I will never like talking on the phone. Ever.) 16. Learn to ride a horse. There is no reason I need to do this. But I used to love riding horses when I was little, so I want to see if I can still do it without getting thrown and breaking my entire body. 17. Tour the American south. This is mostly an excuse to go to Georgia, but I would like to see the rest of the South. Except Florida. I have absolutely no desire to visit Florida. 18. Plant an herb garden. I assume this is the easiest type of garden to plant and maintain. Please inform me if I am mistaken. 19. Plant a vegetable garden. I probably won’t do this until I have a house of my own, because I don’t think my landlords would appreciate me digging up the backyard of their rental property in an attempt to plant a garden. Or, if I’m not going to be buying a house anytime soon, I can always use my parents’ backyard. I’m sure they’d love it. Maybe. 20. Learn to swim. Should I have learned to swim long before I turned 30? Yes. Will I actually learn how to swim in my 30s? Doubtful. But I’m going to try. 21. See a show on Broadway. Again, this kind of relies on things beyond my control. Broadway has to open back up, for one thing. But I’ve loved musicals since I was five, so it would be ridiculous if I never went to New York to see an actual Broadway show. 22. Visit Prince Edward Island. Watching the 1985 version of Anne of Green Gables is one of the most vivid memories from my childhood, and I’ve wanted to go to Prince Edward Island ever since. Ideally, I’d like to take my nieces with me, but I think this could also be a fun trip to do on my own if they don’t want to go. 23. Set up the Dramatic Hope Foundation. Ten years ago, one of the best teachers I’ve ever had died. Since then, I’ve been attempting to find a way to honor her legacy. One of the things I came up with was a theatre camp for junior high and high school students, the proceeds of which will go to teachers diagnosed with cancer. I don’t know if I’ll ever manage to pull it off, but I have to try. 24. Get to 1,000,000 pages read. I’ve been tracking my reading since May 2005, and I always believed it would take a year or two to reach one million pages. Oh, how naive I was! It’s taken me 16 years to get to 416,454 pages, so I clearly have a ways to go. 25. Travel on an airplane. If you’ve read this blog post, you know why I need to learn how to travel on an airplane without having a complete mental breakdown. 26. Plant some fruit trees. Honestly, I’ll probably never get around to doing this. But I would like to be able to stand next to someone, stare at a row of fruit trees, and brag about being the one who planted them. 27. Finish reading all of the books I own. At last count, I own 1,087 books. So far I’ve read 394 of them. I think you all understand why I need to work on this goal. 28. Learn to speak Spanish. I took Spanish for two years in high school and one year in college, but I didn’t really learn that much. My hope is that I’ll be more motivated this time around. 29. Learn American Sign Language. American Sign Language is one of those things I believe kids should start learning in elementary school so everyone can communicate, regardless of hearing capabilities. But, since I didn’t learn it as a child (other than the alphabet and the Pledge of Allegiance), I’m going to attempt to learn it as an adult. 30. Plant a vineyard. This one is completely unnecessary and I blame it 100% on repeated viewings of the Lindsay Lohan version of The Parent Trap. 31. Finish my Summer of Stephen challenge. Unless Stephen King dies before I turn 40 (which he’d better not!), there is no way I will finish reading/watching all of his work. But I definitely need to start putting a lot more work into it. 32. Work on a PhD in English. I really just want to see Dr. in front of my name. 33-38. Work on degrees in psychology, music, mortuary science, criminal justice, law, and a program to become a medical examiner. None of these are really necessary. But I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. So why not do a little bit of everything? 39. Make every pie from the Sugar, Butter, Flour cookbook. I am obsessed with the musical Waitress, which led to buying a cookbook with recipes based on the plot of the show. I have never made a pie before, but I’m determined to try. 40. Volunteer/work for the Innocence Project. This is just one of those causes that I feel drawn to. I can’t really explain why. 41. Raise an ostentation of peacocks. I can only blame Flannery O’Connor for this one. 42. Start a bee colony. I briefly considered having the goal of taking a lover in my 30s. But then I decided I’d rather have a colony of bees. 43. Learn to hunt with a bow, gun, and spear. You can’t read as many end-of-the-world books as I do and not come to the realization that you have absolutely no survival skills. 44. Travel around Ireland and Scotland. Of all the places I want to go, these are the countries I most want to visit. Hence, needing to learn how to ride on a plane. 45. Learn to butcher various animals. Once again, I need survival skills. Because I have none. 46. Buy a van or bus to turn into a tiny traveling house. This is another set of skills that absolutely do not have. But I’ve spent too much time scrolling through Instagram accounts of people who’ve turned buses into traveling homes, so now I want one. 47. Run a marathon. Considering the fact that I ran for about two minutes the other day and almost died, I seriously doubt I’ll manage to do this. But if you see me out jogging so slowly that it looks like walking, mind your own business. 48. Learn taxidermy. This one can probably be blamed on my love of Jenny Lawson and her menagerie of taxidermied animals. 49. Learn how to flip a house. Do I watch way too many hours of HGTV? Yes, yes, I do. 50. Walk the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. I read about this in a book a couple years ago and have wanted to attempt it ever since. I’ll have to get in way better shape first (and be able to ride on a plane), but this is something I definitely want to put in the effort to actually do. Once again, it’s highly likely that I will fail miserably at most, if not all, of these. But I’m going to try. Wish me luck!
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Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
March 2019
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