I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. And as I mentioned here back in January, I figured that I’d more than likely come up with a list of things I wanted to do in the course of the year at some later date, rather than on January 1st. And indeed, after a month or two of waiting for the spirit to move me, I came up with a list of 7 things I want to do in this, my 26th year. I wrote this list back in March, when said 26th year began, so I’ve actually already gotten started on a few of these things, but I decided to go ahead and post my list here to give myself some added motivation (read: fear of public shame if I fail).
So here we go!
In this, my 26th year, I will…
- Sleep outside overnight (not in a tent)
- Travel somewhere alone
- Learn to play guitar
- Run a 10k (6.1 miles)
- Run to/from a village at least 6.5 miles away
- Read Crime and Punishment; War and Peace and/or The Brothers Karamazov
- Climb to the top of Mt. Hoverla
I’m pleased to report that I can already check number four off my list–I ran my first 10k on April 22nd in Berehove, far far western Ukraine. The experience—both the training leading up to it and the actual race itself were wonderful. If you have a really good memory (or click on this link), then you’ll know that getting back to running regularly (or at least exercising in some way shape or form) was one of my goals last year, and it’s wonderful beyond words to have accomplished that goal. I’m happier when I run (both while and after running), I feel better (physically and mentally), and it’s just fun. So I’m really pleased to be not just running again, but to have completed an actual race (10k=6.1 miles). Although at first I thought 6.1 miles would be really challenging, once I started training, I realize early on that it wouldn’t really be as much of a challenge as I wanted. During this training, I decided that I’d like to try to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles) sometime in the relatively near future, but unfortunately there are no half-marathon races in Ukraine anytime particularly soon.
So that leads to number five on my list—run to/from a village at least 6 miles away. If I run there and back, I’ll have run almost 13.1 miles. One of the things I enjoyed most while training for the 10k was running outside of Chortkiv down the back-roads and side streets into different neighborhoods or little villages nearby. The day that I first ran to a different village and actually passed by the street sign announcing my arrival in the neighboring village, I got so excited! This village is a place I never would have walked to or taken a bus to and consequently, I never would have seen it if I hadn’t run through. I ran past babusyas trudging home from the bazaar with rolling carts, I passed men and women planting potatoes in the fields, I ran through the center of the village and past the two churches, on opposing sides of the streets. And because I wasn’t a tourist in the traditional sense, I wasn’t viewing things as I normally would (through the lens of my camera or in a hurry to get somewhere/meet somewhere with friends)—I just ran by, caught a glimpse of daily life, and ran back home again. It’s an entirely different way of seeing things. And I’m really hoping to do more of that this year by increasing the distance of my runs.
I can also say that I’ve at least started to accomplish number three. I bought a guitar earlier last week (after waiting for one to become available from a PCV on his way out) and got home so excited to learn that my fingertips have been throbbing non-stop for the six days that I’ve had this guitar. I’m so excited to be playing. It’s something I never really thought I’d want to do…I always loved singing, but I never really had much desire to learn to play the guitar. I took a lesson back in middle school, but when I realized that I wasn’t instantly going to be good, I quit. And then a few years later when the thought of learning guitar passed through my mind, I allowed myself to be very quickly defeated at the thought. Then finally this year I decided that I’ve got the time and resources to teach myself…I figure people do this all the time. And why shouldn’t I? So that was that. I bought the guitar and once I’ve suck money into something, there’s no way I’ll turn back.
I’m teaching myself, so it’ll probably take a while for me to be any good, but I can tune my guitar, I’ve learned seven basic chords, I can play chromatic scales, and I can play a few very basic songs (“I’ll Fly Away,” “You Are My Sunshine”) and I can eke out pretty bad versions of two of my favorite songs (“So Long Ago,” by Nanci Griffith and “Long Road” by Patty Griffin). I figure that’s a pretty decent amount of progress for one week…so give it one year and I’d say I’ll definitely be able to check “learn how to play the guitar” off the list!
Number seven is a bit of a sore point. I’d hoped to have already accomplished this by this point in the year, as I went on a climb to Mt. Hoverla back in March. BUT because the weather was still so bad at that time of year, the very top of the peak was closed off and we couldn’t make it to the very top. But I refuse not to go back and make it to the top, so I will return at some point and conquer Mt. Hoverla, by God! I’m hoping to convince a friend of mine to go with my on the 4th of July. I feel like that’d be a fun day to climb the highest peak in Ukraine, right?! If it doesn’t happen then, it’ll happen at some point. And I’ll be sure to charge my camera battery this time!
The others are fairly self-explanatory things that I simply feel like I ought to do at some point in my life, and I might as well go ahead and give myself some time limits and constraints to make sure I get them done. Then next year I can put more awesome things on my list and so on and so on, until I can look back at all these lists and feel like I can concretely say that I’ve done some pretty cool stuff. Not that it’s necessary to make a list to feel that way, but it’s always nice to take a pen and make a sweeping, victorious check next to something you’ve set out to do.
So here’s to year number 26 — to another full year of Peace Corps service, to another twelve months of an ever-surprising, delightful life, and to checking things off lists!
