Hopes and Dreams

Lately I've been having many reflective conversations with friends and family. All of my friends here at home have come back from a year at college with fresh perspectives. We have each grown and stretched ourselves in different ways. We're trying to head in the right direction, but I think it's a little tricky to know just what that is.

Today on my walk with Jacob, we talked, and talked, and talked. We talked about our futures, about our opinions, about faith and fate. It feels good to have someone you can trust with a conversation like that, you know?

I keep trying to figure out just who I want to be. I'm just beginning this whole "real life" thing, after all!

Here are a few things that I've rested on.

I want to be a person who competes against herself, not others.

I want to be able to live by myself. (Maybe in a studio apartment-- wouldn't that be fun??)

I want to burn more candles. Especially the lightly scented ones, not the ones that make me sneeze.

I want to find more venues to perform.

I want to take good care of my body. (More zumba, please!)

I want to wear jewelry. Lots of it.

I want to graduate from college, while keeping my debt under control.

I want to learn how to shoot photographs in the manual setting.

I want to be compassionate and insightful with friends and strangers.

I want to be able to make any space feel like a home. (Guess what I just ordered for my apartment next year? :)

I want to become a really excellent thrift store shopper.

I want to learn how to make basic alterations on those thrift store finds.

I want to keep in touch with my close friends, no matter where we live.

I want to have a family. (Once I figure a few more things out ;)

I want to write... and just maybe even publish a book.

I want to be a supportive, loving sister.

I want to keep traveling. Always.

As I'm writing this, I just know that I'll be like, doing yoga tonight or something, and a million more things will pop into my head. But here's the list as it stands, in the middle of June 2011.

Maybe I'll check in with it again in a year or so. :)