n i c k y n a x . c o m

One of the items on my Life List has now gladly been crossed off.

This past weekend I went skiing with my good friend Lorianne. I was nervous, but mostly excited to try something new and finally experience what I always thought looked like a lot of fun.

What transpired was a mix of “This isn’t so hard!” and “OMGOMGOMGOMG I CAN’T STOP I CAN’T STOP ABORT ABORT ABORT!!!”

Here are some pictures of our day at Okemo Ski Resort in Vermont. Pay more attention to the ones where I am standing and less attention to the ones where I look like Bambi learning to walk.

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About a month ago I published an entry in which I listed some of the items on my Life List, and it looks like one of those goals is going to happen in a couple weeks.

Though not exactly as I had envisioned.

In two weeks, Kevin has to attend a wedding of an old friend of his, and he asked me to be his date. The wedding is in Kentucky, which means we’re just making a nice weekend of it. The original plan was to fly there, but airline prices are higher than the actual planes, so that’s not really an option for us anymore. So, it has been determined that we will be driving.

ROAD TRIP!

To Kentucky.

And back.

In one weekend.

Gulp.

Let’s take a second to actually see what this will look like, shall we?

That’s no small potatoes. According to Google Maps, that’s 880 miles. And it will take just under 14 hours. Factor in bathroom breaks and stopping to eat along the way, and now we’re talking more like 16 hours or so.

Oh yeah, it’s also a round trip. So, let’s adjust our numbers. Now we’re talking about 1760 miles and about 32 hours of driving.

All in one weekend.

For reals? Is that even humanly possible?

Yes, I had a cross-country road trip on my Life List, but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

In my head, it would be a group of friends spending about a week or so driving around the country in a van and visiting random tourist traps along the way. You know, those places where water runs uphill. Or those places where giant balls of twine warrant attention. Or Dollywood.

Instead it’s going to be two gay guys going halfway across the country and back to a place that (from my limited knowledge of) isn’t the most homo-friendly place on the planet. And then we’ll don our gay apparel and be each others date. To a wedding. In Kentucky.

Not exactly the same as Dollywood.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually am still excited to go, because regardless of how pleasant or not it may end up being, it is a new experience and an adventure. And it will also get me out of the city for a couple days, and that can do the soul a world of good every now and then. I’ve never been to Kentucky before unless you count driving through a tiny portion of it on my way to and from Georgia when I was ten, so that will help to reach the Life List goal of visiting every state also.

And if my grade school geography taught me anything, I believe we will be driving through the Appalachian Mountains, which could be quite beautiful. I think we’re embarking on a Thursday evening, so depending on how things work out, we could end up in the mountains for a sunset and/or a sunrise, which would be an extra treat.

So, I’m focusing on the silver linings and as it draws closer find myself looking forward to it more and more. But from now on I’m just going to be more specific with these Life List items.

Much more specific.

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I guess one of the good things about being friends with a Life Coach is that he often goes into Life Coach Mode and I tend to get free advice and guidance from someone certified to dispense it.

One of the bad things about being friends with a Life Coach is that he often goes into Life Coach Mode and I tend to get free advice and guidance from someone certified to dispense it…whether I like it or not.

But when it comes down to it, I’m glad he’s there and would much rather have someone there to help than not. And besides, a lot of things I get from him are good nuggets that I’d be silly not to listen to and adopt into my life.

One of the things he and I have discussed in the past is the importance of Life Lists. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a Life List is a list of things you want to do during your lifetime. The intention is that you accomplish them and cross them off one by one. The theory being that if you have written them down, it helps you to focus on them and visualize them and acts as more of a motivator for you to get out there and actually accomplish them.

In short, it helps you to be an active participant in Life instead of a passive one.

It’s been awhile since I first made my Life List. I started in January of 2007, and at the start was very excited and ready to achieve everything on it. But over time, I forgot about it and put it aside. And seeing as how mine was on my hard drive and not an actual physical list, when I got a new laptop earlier this year, the list was lost.

I’ve been feeling a bit antsy about things lately and felt I haven’t really had a lot to get excited about or work toward, so I’ve decided to dig out my old laptop, find the Life List and transfer over to this computer and really set about crossing more goals off and living the life I dream about.

I found that a majority of things on my list were travel related, which I guess shouldn’t come as a huge surprise considering as I’ve gotten older I’ve become more and more interested in exploring the world and seeing what’s out there.

 

My Life List

• Visit all 50 States
• Travel to all 7 continents (though I won’t be incredibly disappointed if I never make it to Antarctica)
• Take a gondola ride in Venice
• Take a cross-country road trip
• Swim with Dolphins
• Visit every Disney Theme Park on the planet
• Water Ski
• Snow Ski
• Ride a Segway
• Learn Sign Language well enough to have conversations
• Write a book (and have it published)
• Stay in a suite at a Five-Star Hotel
• Stomp Grapes
• Fly First Class on an international flight
• Host a Dinner Party
• Scuba Dive
• Take a hot air balloon ride
• Be a guest on a talk show
• Do a flip on a trampoline
• Have a six-pack (if just for one day)

That’s just a sampling of twenty things on my current Life List. As you can see, some are big things and some are small things, but when it comes down to it, all things that I would like to do.

I was pleased to see that were some things on my list that I had actually accomplished in the year and few months since I had written it. One of the items on the list was to run a marathon, and not only have I done that, but I’ve done it twice now, and really see no reason why I can’t and shouldn’t run even more in the coming years.

I also swam with sharks, which was something that was on the list. Sure, it was snorkeling at Typhoon Lagoon, which I’m sure holds no threat of actual danger whatsoever. But there were sharks in that water, and I was doggy-paddling to the other side as fast as my terrified body could manage, so technically, I DID swim with sharks.

Also on the list was cosmetic dentistry, and considering I started the whole Invisalign process about a week and a half ago, I think it’s safe to say that I can start to cross that one off the list too even though it will take a year or two before it’s actually finished.

Would I have accomplished these things had I not had the Life List? Sure, it’s entirely possible. But seeing it with my own eyes that I had goals that I achieved is very empowering and only helps to give me more confidence, motivation and belief that the rest of the things on my list will one day have a horizontal line through them as well.

And that’s half the battle right there.

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