My Life on the List

Photo from: The Mother Duck Hub

Have you ever felt that feeling when you hold on to a vision, about you doing something you extremely dream of, and have high hopes that at one point in the future it will materialize? It's nervy, though for the most part it is exhilarating. 

Interesting people like Ms. Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl fame (the original "life list" goddess) inspired me that imagining my own life list  is one, a healthy exercise, and two, a fun encouragement to other people who would like to divvy up the same kind of sensibility. For that I have decided to immortalize these goals, which I drafted from when I was 19, in this blog. 

I'm thankful to have crossed out a few already. But this life list will more likely serve as a reminder of the things I'd like to do in my life. It's something which will push me to look forward to seeing good vibrations and not merely a rough draft of things I need to do before I die. It's a no-pressure thing. It may not all come true but it will make me go for positive challenges everyday. 

This list goes in random but I pray to keep coming back to cross out some more!

ADVENTURE

• Fly in an Ultralight Aircraft in Angeles Flying Club Woodland Air Park
• Join the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark and fly-in of course!
• Backpack across Europe
• Eat Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream while watching a movie flick
• Ride over a dolphin in Subic and in Underwaterworld, Singapore
• Try a zorb ball
• Slide in an AquaDuck ship board water coaster in a European Cruise
• Have a fun long-road trip with my family and sing along this David Isaac's
• Trip up the Eiffel Tower
• Try a Sling Shot Thrill Ride in Myrtle Beach
• Go skywalk in Auckland
• Ride a gondola in Venice
• Pass through the Langkawi Skybridge in Malaysia
• Ride a cable car in Hong Kong, Singapore, and San Francisco
• Climb the Great Wall of China
• Mill around a city by a double-decker bus
• Ride a camel in the desert
• Stand atop the Macau tower [nervy!]
• Cross the golden gate bridge by a Cabriolet
• Feed a walrus for breakfast
• Zip line through a canopy
• Go parasailing
• Wear a bikini in Bora Bora
• Sky dive!
• Do a two-finger whistle for a cab (Maggie inspired!)
• Go painting with him
• Dance an ethnic in Africa
• Stroke a lion's hair
• See a great white shark and a hippo widely open their mouth
• Go snorkeling with a baby bump together with my (future) husband
• Hitch a ride in a coca-cola truck
• Build sand castles with my (future) husband and kids [dreamy!]
• Land a plane
• Summit Kilimanjaro
• Fondle a platypus
• Nuzzle a (clean) frog [LOL!]
• Turn a perfect cartwheel
• Drive a carriage in Vigan
• Touch a pelican's beak in Aussie
• Trek the Mt. Everest
• Go sightseeing Bali on a bicycle- the Elizabeth Gilbert way
• High five a kangaroo in Tasmania
• Sky dine in Japan
• Become seriously inebriated just for once in my life, maybe with a Chateau Margaux [I don't drink so it's like an evil twin kind of dream- but just that, nothing else.]
• Go rafting
• Climb up Machu Picchu in Peru
• Play an electric guitar and sing an Aerosmith or a Queen in a social event [rockstar laugh*]
• Shout atop the Empire State Building

EXPERIENCES

• Pick cherry blossoms in Japan
• Fly first class
• Watch the Olympics, live
• Go Holly Golightly at Tiffany's [did once in Hong Kong, but it's better with a smile and an authentic Danish pastry on hand]
• Watch a show in Broadway and West End
• See Lea Salonga perform at the Carlyle
• Attend a Fashion Week in all four fashion destinations- New York, Paris, London, and Milan
• Spend a weekend at a spa
• Visit the skyscraper New York Times building in Midtown Manhattan and grab copies of their magazines
• Visit the Universal Studios in Singapore and LA
• Visit Disneyland in Hong Kong, Paris, and LA
• Tour in a cruise
• See the relics of Filipino culture and history in Ilocos
• Take a flight in Lufthansa
• Meet and travel with Samantha Brown and Andrew Zimmern
• Hear a mass in Vatican City
• Go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land
• Tour inside the Sydney Opera House
• Spend an entire weekend in Sentosa Island, Singapore
•  Do a missionary/ volunteer work in Jaipur, India [I got an invitation already], Sierra Leone and other poorer communities in Africa, and some distant barrios in the Philippines
• Visit the Rizal Residence in Calamba
• Organize an event, a bigger event
• Meet and be friends with 1, 000 famous and good writers (Nicholas Sparks, Lauren Wiesberger, Elizabeth Gilbert, Paulo Coelho, John Green, JK Rowling,...)
• See world-famous band/ singers (and more) perform live
• Go sledding
• Make snow angels
• Visit the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa
• See Michelangelo's works
• Emcee an event, and more
• Attend a TED talk or conference
• Buy an enormous amount of groceries using coupons [effect of watching Extreme Couponing, what else could I blame?]
• Go to a real casino in Macau and Las Vegas
• Get a VIP access turbo jet ride to Taipa and back to Hong Kong
• Visit the Michael Jackson Gallery in Macau
• Teach fellow youths and children on social awareness [did it at age 12 to 14, great experience]
• Take a photo and get an autograph from the Duchess of Cambridge and a famous Hollywood celebrity- maybe Jolie 
• Live some time in all these places: 1. Paris 2. Copenhagen 3. Frankfurt 4. Munich 5. Lisbon 6. Santorini 7. Tuscany 8. Rome 9. Milan 10. New York 12. London 13. Norway 14. St. Tropez 15. Bangalore or Agra 16. Singapore 17. New Zealand 18. Prague 19. Barcelona 20. Helsinki 21. Sydney 22. Zurich 23. Stockholm 24. Amsterdam [minus the marijuana-serving cafes] 25. Dusseldorf 
• Travel Europe by train
• Meet the Pope
• See Michelangelo's David
• Drop a love letter in Juliet's Wall in Verona, Italy
• Do a United Nations mission in Africa
• Have a picture outside the Taj Mahal like Princess Diana
• Interview and establish a friendly relationship with my idols: Samantha Brown, Andrew Zimmern, Bobby Chinn, Anthony Bourdain, Tim Gunn, Daphne Oseña- Paez, Ingrid Chua- Go, Nina Garcia, Nigella Lawson, Kylie Kwong, Buddy Valastro, Maria Ressa, Nicholas Sparks, Paulo Coelho, Lauren Weisberger, Camilla Morton, Joshua Harris, Nick Vujicic, John Maxwell, Seth Godin, Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Lea Salonga, Tweetie de Leon, Janice and Sonia Lee, Yiruma, Kenny G., Hillary Rodham Clinton, Andrea Corr. Is it too much? :)
• Jet ski-ing in Maldives
• Host a party at a yacht
• See the top of Mount Fuji from a helipad, or any similar ride
• Enjoy a fish pedicure in Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Try eating a grilled piranha in Ecuador (Andrew Zimmern said they're not as scary as they seem)

TRAVEL

• Trek Cape Town
• Go sightseeing Copenhagen and Paris on a bicycle or Vespa
• Set foot in all 50 states, especially New York
• See the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt
• Globe trek all seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. 
• Meet Ketut Liyer in Indonesia
• Have an Italian fashion inspired photo of me taken at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Chianti, the Colosseum, and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
• Realize my Parisian travel dream
• Sign in a few days- stay at the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai (damn, wish!)
• Look out over an entire city from the Petronas Twin Tower in Malaysia and the skyscraper Taipei 101
• Spend a week in Hong Kong
• Vacation in Palawan, Batanes, and Vigan
• Cruise the Sicily harbour
• Have a great time in Greece and Barcelona
• See the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Statue of Liberty, and other landmarks just as spectacular in the US
• Set foot on all these places in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin
• Travel to Cairns to get to the Great Barrier Reef
• Visit Gold Coast and spend a weekend at the Surfer's Paradise
• Travel to Nouvelle Caledonie or New Caledonia
• Travel to all Scandinavian countries
• See the ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico
• Drift in the beaches of Deep South Belize
• Vacation in Maldives
• See The Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Visit all these cities in UK: London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, and York
• Go to Brussels
• Vacation in French Polynesia
• Visit Ethiopia, Moscow, and Morocco
• Visit Macau, again
• Visit Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in China
• Visit Luang Prabang, Laos
• Wear a Korean ensemble in Seoul
• Visit Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, and Tuscany
•  See the Berlin Wall in Germany 

FAMILY

• Get married
• Own an intentional home-- with a mixture of Parisian vintage and eclectic modern design
• Have a son
• Have a daughter
• Get ready for marriage (over and above the wedding thing)
• Be an enjoyable and inspiring wife
• Have natural labor and spontaneous v. delivery
• Make a video montage of my kids
• Come up with a good pregnancy plan
• Overcome pregnancy blues
• Organize themed parties for the family
• Cord blood banking
• Capture my family's life through the lens
• Travel the world with my family
• Teach my kids life and finances early on
• Teach my kids to be respectful, generous, and responsible
• Teach my kids bible and religion
• Teach my kids piano and guitar
• Read my kids stories to sleep
• Ace parenting esp. on the formative years
• Grow our own vegetables at home
• Homeschool my kids
• Make scrapbooks 
• Style my hubby and kids' outfit
• Cook my family sumptuous meals everyday
• Throw a huge and meaningful celebration for my parents' golden anniversary
• Decorate a dainty nursery for my kids
• Teach my kids how to read,write, and speak effectively
• Spend an exceptional time with the husband
• See my kids grow, settled, and happy
• Save enough for a secure retirement 

CAREER/ SKILLS

• Be conversational in all these languages: English, French, Filipino, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, Nihongo, Arabic, Norwegian
• Write my first e-book
• Have a purposeful and creative media kit
• Publish books
• Be an editor of a magazine
• Redesign Pens n' Paper
• Write a novel
• Make a font
• Dotcomize Pens n' Paper
• Ace a non- sleazy internet marketing
• Learn graphic design for desktop publishing
• Host a unique travel show on TLC
• Be a public speaker
• Collaborate with eminent websites 
• Master DSLR cameras
• Play the violin
• Design my own home pieces
• Write an article for a well- known magazine (travel, fashion, home & living)
• Put up a cafe'-slash-fashion-slash-book shop for men and women
• Hold a workshop on relationships, travel, homemaking & decorating, fashion, and lifestyle (preferably in Tacloban City first) for moms, women, and Pens n' Paper readers
• Make an appearance in these forms of media: television, magazines, book, internet, radio
• Make enough money to support my family
• Learn how to cook & bake like a pro
• Attend creative writing workshops, and start one of my own
• Get a life coach certification
• Help improve lives through my work
• Make my own list of 100 best places to visit
• Contribute a 100-things-women-should-always-have for either Elle, Vogue, InStyle, Glamour, or Haper's Bazaar
• Send "thank you" notes to others
• Own a passive- income, real estate property business
• Make 1,000 lovely things (Maggie inspired!)
• Make an e- magazine for Pens n' Paper readers
• Learn how to drive (confessions!)
• Learn calligraphy
• Take one nicely shot photo everyday for a year, and blog about it
• Cross-titch Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Pieta
• Do something worthy of a MacArthur Fellow nomination
• Learn how to make coffee and cocktail mixes like a pro
• Decorate spaces at home just as how I want them to be
• Refurbish my parents' home
• Start a charity to benefit the abandoned elderly

To be continued...



PS I hope this is not an utter balderdash. Try it, too and let's share the same blissful wordiness!

Let's go fulfill our dreams,

Syril