I love reading life lists, bucket lists, lists of places to see before you die, lists of songs and books you must read in your lifetime. Last summer, inspired by Mighty Girl Maggie Mason and many of her readers, I started a life list of my own. So far, there are only 53 items on it, but I am aiming for 100 and couldn’t wait to share it.

Today seems like the perfect day to publish my list because I did something that I have wanted to do for a long time: run. Today I ran a mere half mile—and felt immensely proud of myself. I had myself convinced that I couldn’t do it—that I would peter out after 10 yards and give up with a stitch in my side and a wound in my pride. (Wow, didn’t mean to make that rhyme; I’m a poet and I didn’t know it! [Sorry. I considered deleting that but it was real, people. Real.])

Today I decided to take those first few strides. I started out slowly and kept going at a slow pace the entire time. Turns out you can keep running if you don’t burn up all of your energy at the start! I am always learning. I could have kept going, I think, but my shins started to hurt and my calves were tightening up. I want to go running again tomorrow, so I decided not to push it today. When I got to the half-mile mark, I saw this:

It was a sign. Literally and figuratively. I should keep running, and I should keep working on RR. Both activities help me feel healthy and accomplished.

So, here it is—the start of my life list:

1. Climb an Egyptian pyramid
2. Visit Asia – Great Wall, Forbidden City, Hiroshima, Shanghai
3. Teach something
4. Visit South America – Machu Picchu, Mayan ruins, Andes
5. Hold a monkey/primate
6. See the Northern Lights
7. Pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island
8. Finish my Master’s degree
9. Become a photographer
10. Be friends with my nieces
11. Help someone financially
12. Live somewhere with a front porch
13. Live somewhere with a window seat or reading nook
14. Hike through the Akamas gorge in Cyprus with Robbie
15. See the Giant’s Causeway
16. Understand nutrition better
17. Build bookcases with my dad
18. Declutter and simplify my belongings
19. Journal consistently
20. Try kayaking
21. Learn another instrument
22. Pursue work that interests and fulfills me
23. Remodel a room from top to bottom
24. Write and publish a book
25. Learn to garden
26. Catch up on all of the books I should have already read as a bookseller
27. Learn a formal dance
28. Speak at a public event/forum about an issue that matters to me
29. Have a usual drink to order when I’m out
30. Return to a place we love (with Robbie)
31. See the Treasury at Petra in Jordan
32. Do something adventurous in New Zealand
33. Run in a 5K
34. Zipline in the Redwoods
35. Help someone solve a mystery in his or her family history or past
36. Go dogsledding
37. Find a winter sport I enjoy
38. Take a CPR course
39. Sydney bridge climb
40. Ride a bike in Nova Scotia
41. Make my own jewelery
42. Take a tour of historically significant places in Boston
43. Get ink
44. Learn to make an espresso drink like a pro
45. Develop a broader knowledge of music
46. Watch the classic movies
47. See a Second City show in Chicago
48. Walk across a rope bridge
49. Horseback riding in the Grand Canyon
50. Get a dog with Robbie
51. Sew a patchwork quilt
52. Dive elegantly into water from a high place
53. Create a mobile of origami birds

I am posting the whole list on the Life List page, where I will add to it and link to stories as I make them happen. I’ve checked a few items off the list since I started it last summer, so I will write about those soon.