I turn 25 this year. Some years ago, my bestfriend Sam pointed out this thing her friend did to commemorate her turning twenty - a bucket list ala "A Walk to Remember", and proposed we make our own, which naturally should include a backpacking trip all over Eurasia. Of course.
And then twenty came around and we were swamped with stuff and nowhere near realizing the Eurasian trip, or even completing the list whatsoever, that I turned it into a 25 things to do before 25 list.
Let's take a list at the list and see what happened:
1. Learn how to drive a car - I did. I learned how to drive a stick shift owner-type jeep that rattled and clanked all around town. But it's one thing to spend a summer taking turns with cousins on a dinosaur, and another to drive everyday, and practice driving for more than a few hours on a weekend.
2. Earn $1000 - Yes. Turns out, 40,000 pesos isn't much when you're paying bills and stuff. It's 3 months' pay for starters. I suppose that it is a lot if you don't pay bills. But I didn't know anything about striving for financial sustainability back then.
3. Cook a full course meal - I'm actually competent in the kitchen now! People actually gulp my food down within seconds! The full course meal hasn't happened yet, but I still have time.
4. Sew an outfit myself - No. The farthest I got to this was T-Shirt surgery and pattern-making classes. I have a sewing machine in a box somewhere in the Pacific. If it arrives before my birthday, I might still be able to accomplish this.
5. Write a book - No. My prose has taken a beating ever since I started writing scripts. It's so much easier to say "the girl looks at the guy" than "she fluttered frosty eyelashes towards him and wondered if he saw her or was staring right through her".
6. Climb a mountain - No. :(
I still want to. Maybe when Malaya's old enough.
7. Film an indie flick - Yes, and it's been one hell of a ride.
8. Sell a print on DA - No. I stopped caring about DA and online communities shortly after coming up with this list. I think this was more of me wanting to be on top of the game in a community I was active with at the time rather than wanting to make a living making prints.
9. Go to Bohol - I received my first kiss on that trip. We did the adventure trip thing and went spelunking. Easily one of the best summers of my life. Probably why it was so hard to recover from that boy. I wonder what happened to him.
10. Pose nude - Yes, and this is now one of my sources of income. Young Ara, so cute and green for thinking this was a big deal.
11. Organize a surprise party - YES! My cousin Deanne's debut. My cousins and I were plotting, our parents got wind and took over at some point, leaving some of the details to us. She walked into the dark ballroom womdering why there was a pile of glow sticks on the floor. She cried when they turned the lights on. Best prank ever.
12. Contribute to Reader's Digest - No. I stopped reading them. I did work for a newspaper for a while, realized the "glory" of getting your byline published wasn't all it was cracked up to be. "Glory" has lost its glimmer over the years.
13. Make the Dean's List - I don't know? Teacher said my total was 1.25 one sem, But I didn't see my name on the list. It doesn't matter much to me now. I didn't take college very seriously. I thought my majors were fun, but I didn't really see school as a place to build skills to earn a living. I just chased stories and muses. I still do I guess, but I'd like to believe I've become more pragmatic with what school is and what it's not.
14. LARP - Yes. But it all seems silly now. Young Ara, such an exhibitionist. I miss my guts. I don't miss whatever I used to be gutsy over.
15. Learn how to speak another language - Yes. Mon petit garçon est jolie et mon francais uhmm... sucks?
16. Visit another country - No. Not since Hong Kong.
17. See someone die - A cat. I saw a cat cross the street, get hit by a bike, shiver, and then breathe its last on the pavement. Death is not a joke.
18. Watch a birthing - My own! But before that, a buttload of waterbirth videos for research. Giving birth to my baby beats everything I'd seen on video though.
19. Perform for theater - Yes. Once. I miss the craft, but not the stage.
20. Get a Dama de Noche album launched - No. Very bad breakup, with irrepairable friendships as a consequence. It's all good though, you simply learn that some people are not meant to be in your life, and some people are just really big assholes.
21. Find out about my dad - He died November 7, 2008. The half brother who told us and I email sporadically. We've agreed to meet someday, but never got around to it (he lives in Singapore).
22. Name a baby - Uhmm, duh?
23. Talk to one of my fave musicians/authors - In 2009, The director for a short film I'd auditioned for met up with me to talk about the project. The meeting ended in the wee hours of the morning, with him giving me a copy of his now defunct band's music. I gave it a listen and was blown away. I'd just found my favorite Cebu band and they didn't even play live anymore. What a bummer.
Did I mention director/musician is now my partner, artistic collaborator and baby-daddy? (I swear, the baby isn't an art project)
24. Paint a mural - Yes. Don't ask me if they were legal.
25. Get a moondance - I do every now and then from the partner. It's pleasant. It's even better that we both can't dance for shit. So it's like we're just hugging and moving around, trying not to step on each other's toes.
That's 16 out of 25, with 2 things I could still do, 1 unsure thing, and a buttload of undoables.
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