my 17 before 18 list

I first heard of these kind of lists on Elizabeth's Delightfully Tacky blog. I've always like the idea of a bucket list, but I'm the kind of person that, if given too much time, never gets anything accomplished. Plus, I hate the feeling of unreachable goals. Yes, they can be difficult. Yes, they can demand hard work. But I don't like it when people reach to far and end up setting themselves up for failure.

So when I saw these year-long __ before __ lists, I jumped on board. However, I only heard of them a the beginning of this past summer so I only had a couple months to complete my 16 before 17 list. I think I did pretty well on it though. That's probably because I gave myself goals that were relative to the time I had to complete them. Such things like finish my first novel and drinking only water for a week.

This time around, I'm doing things a little differently. I'm setting a couple goals up that really have nothing to do with my performance. Things that might or might not happen within a year, such as getting my braces off or even graduating. And there are also something that aren't so much of a year-long thing as they are a month-long thing. A lot of things are also goals that are already in progress, such as completing the October Dress Project.

A lot of my goals are related to my writing, which is really something that I'd like to do a lot more of this year. With university looming up ahead, I know that this year is probably the last I'll have to get any serious writing done. So there are a lot of things that I want to get accomplished by the end such as write a second book, write 50,000 words in a month (NaNoWriMo), edit my first book, and re-write a fan-fiction.

And then there are a few things that are more about making my life better such as keeping up with my nighttime stretches (I have a bad back and this has really helped), reading more and better books, cooking more, reading the Bible, and purging my closet.

And finally, there are things that will contribute to all the changes that will be occurring at the end of this school year: get good grades, pick a university, graduate...

It's a really strange feeling knowing that this is my last year at home. Both my older siblings took a year off between high school and university, so I feel kind of young to be heading off so soon. But I'm excited as well! I'll be an adult, I'll be a university student, finally studying what I love, I'll be on my own (more or less; I'll be at the same school and residence as my older sister hopefully)... There are so many changes about to happen, and although I know that they're speeding towards me like a bullet, I also have to learn to take a deep breath and enjoy these last months I have with my family.