43 Things

I love 43 Things. This website allows you to enter your life goals, and view how they stack up against other people's.

My current life goals are quite the grab bag. Some are very popular (141 people want to live in Barcelona), and others are a little more esoteric (only one person wants to travel to Palestine). Some other goals I have are:

1. Get my truck driver's license
2. Teach English in China (54 people want to do this)
3. Get my Master's degree in Elementary Education
4. Travel to Israel and the Palestinian Territories (1 person!)
5. Nanny in Washington, D.C.

These definitely aren't your run of the mill goals, but I love doing new things. Can you tell I'm a little ADD?

What are your goals?

Frugal Environmental Goals

This year, my two goals are to get my use of handkerchiefs and cloth wipes down to a science. I would also like to walk or bike to school a few days a week. I recently bought a pair of rollerblades from the local thrift store (just $2!), so I have a whole menu of options. My car's revolt will add another incentive to walk to school.

This past year I focused on recycling and using cloth bags for groceries. A lot of stores in my town give a discount to cloth bag users (anywhere from three to five cents per bag), and some donate a small amount to charity when you use a cloth bag. I also began to use a drying rack for my clothes, and cloth pads during my period. Overall, it was a very successful year---so much so that I was left searching frantically for my (nonexistent) cloth bags in stores when I went home at Christmas. What a difference a few months make!

I recently transitioned from plastic Tupperware to glass mason jars, and am feeling really good about the switch. No more lingering food smells (somehow orange scents never come out of the plastic!). No more worries about toxic chemicals leaking into the food when I'm too lazy to heat my food on another set of dishes and just toss it in the microwave. I'm psyched!

What are your green goals for this year?

Life Goals

I was rifling through my purse the other day, and came across this list of goals:

1. Live and Work in Barcelona


2. Teach English in Asia


3. Get a Master's Degree in Teaching---maybe through the PACE program?


4. Finish two years of service with AmeriCorps (in New England or Alaska)


5. Get a Trucker's License


6. Travel in Europe (in Venice, Rome, Vatican City)


7. Go on a Vegetarian Cruise

These are some pretty widely divergent goals! I sincerely hope to do each and every one of them.

Where Are Career Services When You Need Them?

Is it horrible that I have no idea what I truly want to do with my life? I have the respectable list of goals to pull out for my relatives (get a Master's degree in education, teach English in Asia, do two years of Americorps service in public schools), but so far I haven't found that one thing that makes me just love getting up in the morning. Maybe because I'm not a morning person?

It's not that I don't enjoy what I'm doing (teaching English as a Foreign Language and tutoring in public schools), it's just that it's not my passion. I want more from a job than this.

If I could, I would work with children one on one, completely on my own (no list of what has to be done, no goals to meet, just some nice, child-led learning). Getting my Master's degree sounds great and all, but I don't really gel that well with public schools. I've seen too many kids who just can't fit into the classroom mold.

Take Ashton, for example. I started taking him out of the classroom for forty-five minutes three times a week, and was just amazed at his academic level. As long as I wasn't doing anything that screamed "schoolwork" with him, he would actually ask to write short stories (and illustrate them) and do math problems with cubes. The minute I pulled a worksheet out, though, you could see the enthusiasm visibly drain out of him.

I do want to travel. If the only way I can finance it is teaching English, I'll do it. I just need some flexibility. Conversation classes with adults are great, as is working with children. As long as there isn't too much structure, I'm great.

I think what got me in trouble in Guatemala was just working for the absolute upper class, and working in an extremely structured environment. I can't stand walking by hungry, begging street children on my way to teach absurdly demanding rich students, who can afford to pay the equivalent of $100 an hour and not show up to class on time. I didn't feel like I was making a difference. I'm all for paying the bills and all, but I also need some sort of job satisfaction.

Things to Do Before I Die

Things I want to do before I die.

1. Go paragliding
2. Live in Asia
3. Do foster care
4. Adopt a child
5. Work in Barcelona
6. Run a marathon
7. Travel to the Palestinian Territories.
8. Backpack across Europe
9. Learn to knit
10. Travel to New York City
11. Work at Wild Oats or Whole Foods
12. Eat at a vegan restaurant
13. Visit Washington, D.C.
14. Learn to juggle
15. Get a deep-tissue and a hot stone massage
16. Finish my novel
17. Travel to Alaska
18. Go to Hawaii
19. Visit Ireland
20. Go hang-gliding
21. Bike to Canada
22. Read one classic a month for a year

I have a lot of travel related goals, don't I? I should really get a start on my list!

Summer Goals

These are my goals for this summer.

1. Finish my American Literature course.


2. Read three classics.


3. Apply to Americorps.


4. Move my sister down to Missouri.


5. Travel independently to Washington, D.C.


6. Secure a laptop.


7. Apply to teach English in Asia.


8. Get my ADD under control.


9. Retrieve my suitcase from Guatemala (somehow!)


10. Go canoeing and rowing once a month.


11. Organize my room---clear out all the boxes and find my iTunes card!


12. Learn French and Italian with Live Mocha.


13. Continue proofreading for Project Gutenberg.


14. Find an international bank for future jobs abroad.


15. Get an inexpensive iPod online.
16. Find a summer job!