Can't Go Back Now

It seems to me that the past couple of years have been steeped in self-exploration, yet I'm not really sure if I'm figuring it out, and I definitely don't know that I'm solving my problems. There comes a point in everyone's life where we decide who we really are. Sometimes we just have to be happy with what we see. There is so much of me I don't know about yet, at the same time, how will I ever find out who that person is if I never DO anything? So..here it is. The growing list of the adventures I want to take-some close to home, some not-and things that I think would be cool to do. Some of them are close to my heart, others are just for fun, but overall, I need to make a life for myself and not feel like I'm just going through the motions. I'm not the kind of person who will ever save the world. I don't have any super cool ideas, and I hate doing things that are scary. I am not an exhibitionist, although I don't mind making a fool of myself. So what is the point? The point is that I AM here. So I might as well make the best of this time that I've been blessed with. Hopefully I find myself along the way. No matter what, though, it's time to move forward-no matter how important or unimportant moments in life may seem. I'm not the person I was..and I can't go back now.

The Living List: (in no particular order)
Teach at an international school
Sing with a swing band
Be in another musical
Take a ceramics class
Be fit enough to do a spinning class regularly
Go to the Grand Canyon (with the Fam) and hike down to Havasupai
See the Northern Lights
Live outside the continental United States (Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, etc.)
Bargain in Tijuana
Learn how to crochet an afghan (well..in process)
Cliff jump (in Hawaii?)
Record a CD of music I've written
Learn Italian
Visit the town in Italy where my Fabiani side is from
Visit all the temples
Go on an African Safari
See the Wonders of the World
See a friggin moose (I swear..if I go back east one more time and don't see one..)
Live in London for a month (or more!)
See an opera at the Met
See a concert in Carnegie Hall
Travel to/through all 50 states
See those giant galapagos turtles (San Diego Zoo with Alisha and friends)
Hike in the Swiss Alps
Create my own pottery
Camp in Yosemite National Park
Go on a cruise
Learn how to do a magic trick
Eat an insect on purpose
Fly first class
Go skinny dipping (when I'm skinny)
Go to the Netherlands (Holland)
Meet a lumberjack, sing the lumberjack song (maybe not to their face..being as they are "loggers")
See Flamenco dancers in Spain and eat tapas and paella
Run a 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon (as if that's not cliche)
See Carl Bloch's paintings at Fredericksborg Palace in Copenhagen (well..part of them at BYU)
Meet a Canadian Mountie
Ride on a motorcycle
Learn how to drive stick (badly..thanks, Matt!)
Test drive a Lotus (or something else super fast and expensive)
Snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef
Visit Machu Picchu
Sing karaoke in Japan
Visit the 4 corners
Go to mount rushmore
Visit Amish country
Visit a rainforest
Visit Austin, TX and see a show (or 5!)
Be debt free  (This was a bittersweet accomplishment)
Ride in a gondola
Memorize a a movement in a mozart piano sonata
Learn 10 songs on guitar
Go Zorbing

The Seven New Wonders were revealed on July 7, 2007.
1. Machu Picchu, Peru
2. The Colisseum in Rome
3. Petra, Jordan
4. Christ Redeemer, Brazil
5. The Great Wall of China
6. Chichen Itza, Mexico
7. The Taj Mahal, India

Join the Kiva website
Milk a cow
Learn how to surf
Kiss in the rain
Hold a tarantula
Sleep in a hammock
Sleep out under the stars  (Thanks, Kirstin!)
Own a betta (He lived one day..RIP Magnus)
Own a vintage couture dress (which means I can fit into it!)
Be an extra in a movie (..or a Preacher..thanks, Christy)
Ride a trolly in San Francisco (..well..I touched one, I rode a cable car, though..so I'm counting it.)
Take a ballet class
Eat escargot
Swim in a hotsprings Rio Dulce, Guatemala July 2012 with Myra and Christina
Get my masters
Write a book
Ride on an elephant Singapore with Lauren March 2012
Ride on a tandem bicycle (with someone else of course!)
Go to the original Hard Rock Cafe and buy a shirt (How sad that it's become so commercialized...yet I want one!)
Meet someone really famous
Go on a service vacation Guatemala June/July 2012 with Myra and Christina  Maximo Nivel (PRODESENH)
Travel to all seven continents
See Tony Bennett LIVE! The last of the great crooners (May 2011 with Lori Wong)
Teach a fitness class or be a personal trainer
Go to a midnight mass at Christmas (in latin)
Get amazing arms and abs
Learn to Rock Climb
Take a yoga class outside
Go to a spa
Go river rafting (Most Amazing Trip EVER! July 2011..I was "Superman')
Hold a scary snake This one actually made it on video! 2011


I'm sure there are more, but this will get me started.
PS..the title of this post is a song by The Weepies (it might sound familiar because it's been in a Barack Obama campaign ad)

Here are the lyrics:

Yesterday when you were young
Everything you needed done was done for you
Now you do it on your own
But you find you're all alone, what can you do?

You and me walk on, walk on, walk on
'Cause you can't go back now

You know there will be days
When you're so tired
That you can't take another step
The night will have no stars
And you'll think you've gone as far
As you will ever get

You and me wak on, walk on, walk on
'Cause you can't go back now

And yeah, yeah, you go where you want to go
Yeah, yeah, be what you want to be
If you ever turn around, you'll see me

I can't really say
Why everybody wishes they were somewhere else
But in the end, the only steps that matter
Are the ones you take all by yourself

You and me walk on, walk on, walk on
Yeah, you and me walk on, walk on, walk on
'Cause you can't go back now
Walk on, walk on, walk on
You can't go back now