Dreams in Life

It's funny how these change each year, as my life gets more direction and focus. Nevertheless, enjoy:

1. Love God always and find ways to get closer to Him (that one hasn't changed).

2. Become either a foreign service officer (for USAID), public health official, midwife, or a mix of the three and help my nation and the world in my own fashion.

3. Play in a band and enjoy making music with some mad chill people, regardless of whether or not fame or fortune comes along (and I pray it does not).

4. Own a bar called Doubting Tom's and have it be more like a coffee shop with a liquor license. Drinks would be served after five and it would be a place of the arts and of intellectual discourse. Though we would serve alcohol, it's not a place to get rowdy and if you do, you will be asked to leave the premises. This is a place of class, culture, discussion, and only the very best of drinks.

5. Own a motorcycle. It's more fuel efficient anyway.

6. Get tattoos. These have changed. I want a red fleur-de-lis on the inside of my right wrist. Fleur-de-lys are the symbol of Joan of Arc (my Confirmation patron) and it's French for "flower of life" (for my vivacity). Red ones symbolize Florence and Scotland, two places I claim ancestry (thus a symbol of my "Gaelic and Garlic" ancestry). On my left wrist, I want a circlet of flames. For I believe it is Heaven, not Hell that is hot (and in Inferno, Satan was placed in ice, not fire), since love is hot. I want it on my left, because it was long believed that those veins were the ones that flowed directly into the heart. I never want to lose the fire I hold for the things I believe in and hold dearly, thus that symbolism and reminder.

7. Fall in love with someone amazing, marry them, and have a couple kids. This one, while seemingly ordinary, is truly extraordinary. I believe it's a priviledge to be able to take part in the amazing love and creative force of humanity's being. I hope it is one that I am priviledged to enjoy.

8. Live in Italy for a year or two and really learn the language and culture.

9. Read Dante's The Divine Comedy in the original Italian it was written in.

10. Train for a marathon in Kenya.

11. Become fluent in as many languages as possible.

12. Run a non-profit.

13.Really learn what Mother Teresa meant by "loving till it hurts."

14. Write a song and perform it in public.

15. Write a book.

16. Take a pilgrimage to Fátima, Jerusalem, and Assisi.

17. Go to Spain, to Valencia, and perfect my paella.

18. Live in a developing country.

19. Never stop fighting.

20. Never stop loving.