Twenty Things I'm Going to Do In My Twenties

1. Graduate college
Get. Me. Out.
2. Enjoy College
"Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured." -Gordon B. Hinckley
And as part of that...
3. Road trip with friends to an away game for my school

Because every young person should have a chance to go on a road trip with friends.
4. Camp Out at a Football Game
Do I think it's stupid to drag a sleeping bag all the way down to the stadium and freeze on the concrete for 24 hours when you can show up fifteen minutes before kickoff and see the game just fine from a few rows up?
Yeah.
Is that going to stop me from doing it?
No.
5. Dance
I did a little ballroom in high school and picked it up again in college. I'm not naturally talented, but I love it and I set a little freshman dream of joining one of my school's ballroom dance companies. Maybe I'll make it and maybe I'll won't.
6. Go on an international study abroad
I traveled across the country this summer, now I want to see the world. Hey, I need to learn a foreign language as a graduation requirement anyway. Might as well put it to good use.
7. Commit to a student club
Not join. I joined plenty of clubs at the head of freshman year and showed up to one meeting for the free food. Now I get their schedule update emails and I feel guilty. I can't do everything, but I want to find something I love and commit to it.
8. Intern/volunteer with a nonprofit
Lately I've been getting into the pro-life movement in little ways. I've done two service events and I've written some articles for pro-life blogs. But there are other causes I'm interested in too. College is the perfect time to serve. You're old enough to drive and set your own schedule, but you're not yet plugged into family and career obligations. More importantly, you're young enough to want to change the world but old enough to know how you want to do it.
9. Fall in Love

More than once, probably. I'm not going to put "get married' on here because I take my goals very seriously and I know not everyone gets married in a timely manner. I started a Dear Future Husband diary about a year ago and I'm careful not to write in it often. I've filled up a lot of personal journals in my life, and I can't think of any more pathetic title for a book than Dear Future Husband: Volume 12. I'm going to let real love come to me in its own time.

10. Go to one of the Fancy Dances

My school does a formal homecoming dance with corsages and everything. I never got to go to homecoming in high school and feel like I should take the chance. If I can't find a suitable date around homecoming season, I want to make it to a Valentine's Day dance just so I can enjoy one more fancy dance like I had in high school.
11. Romantic Alaskan Getaway

Lots of my Facebook friends, both married and non-married, have gone on Alaskan adventures in the last year. There's something romantic about being at the top of the world.
12. Visit Every Temple in Utah

Monticello Temple

Temples are houses of worship in the Mormon religion where important rituals are performed, including marriages. That's why I'm putting this goal in between the romance and travel sections of my list. Well, that and another reason. There are sixteen (soon seventeen) temples inside the state of Utah and I've been to seven of them. Most are either within reasonable driving distance or I have a friend who lives nearby, so it won't be such a trek to visit any of them.
Except for the Monticello Temple. It's off in the middle of nowhere. I'm saving it until I'm on the brink of being engaged, and then I'll road trip out there with my fiancee to see if we can stand each other in a car for hours on end.
13. Go Back to Massachusetts
I saw Boston for the first time this summer, but only for two days. Then I had to get back on the bus and trek across ten more states as part of my summer travel study program. I knew before I'd spent so much as an hour in Massachusetts that I wanted to go back. I have family history there, and so many pieces of history that fascinate me-the Salem Witch Trials, the nineteenth century textile mill boom, childhood homes of several famous authors-it's all right there.
14. Take an art class where I get to create
Art class-another graduation requirement. I've held off on taking one because lots of study abroads offer art classes, but those are more "Let's go study the art history of France" classes than "Let's hang out in France and create art" classes. I'm in a floral design class right now and I love having a class devoted to beauty or creativity. Sometime in the future, I want to take another class like that. Maybe glass staining!
15. Write again
I was a writer in high school. I've had to put that off in order to focus on Operation Pass College Classes, but that's the creative work I really love and I want to get back into it. Once I'm back into the swing of it, I want to publish something I write and get paid for it.
16. Have a posse
Sure, I have friends, but I want a pack. You know the type of friends I'm talking about. I want a crew to take me on adventures.
17. Have big, strong, muscly arms
I had great upper body strength as a kid. I could climb a lamp post without using my legs. Now I have weak arms and I've been diagnosed with carpal tunnel. I'm not going to make any "get in shape" or "have a perfect body" goals because I know how those go down. But if I can change one thing in my body, I want strength in my arms again.
18. Work a fun job
I think everybody should work a few different kinds of jobs in their lifetime. First, a job in your early teens to teach you how to handle money, like babysitting or lawnmowing (check). Then your rinky-dinky burger flipping job (check, check). After that, an internship (check) and jobs that build your resume (not check). But somewhere in the middle, I think everyone should work a job that's genuinely fun-either because it involves travel or working with amazing people or just learning a cool skill.
19. Serve a mission
At the beginning of this year, I applied to serve as a missionary for the Mormon church. Complications arose and I wasn't approved to go. Since then, so many people, both the cruel and those with good intentions, have tried to persuade me against going. Turning twenty is hard on me, not just because I'm leaving behind my teen years, but because nineteen is the minimum age and the most common age for girls to receive their mission assignments. All my friends left at that age. Nine months ago, when I got the bad news, I promised myself I'd be out by twenty. Now I have to make that same promise for twenty one.
I'm going to get there. They say I'll never make it but I'm determined to prove them wrong. After graduating college, serving a mission is the greatest goal in my life right now, so I'm going to get there.
20. Be happy!
That's a lot more important than going on a mission, having a boyfriend, traveling, or learning new things. If you can only do one thing well, do that.