Blogger Appreciation Month Week 2 - Maggie Mason: Life List

This month I’m appreciating a handful of bloggers I love and admire. This week, I'm looking at Maggie Mason who writes MightyGirl. A major through-line of Maggie Mason's internet presence is the idea of a Life List. She made her own . . . I'm not sure when, but years ago. Then she started to spread her idea. She created Mighty Summit and then Camp Mighty - small and larger scale retreats, both designed to help people fulfill their Life Lists. Most recently she founded Go Mighty - a whole company devoted to using Life Lists to help people better themselves and their worlds/communities.

All along, I've been like "Life List. That's cool. Not my thing." As an actor in NYC, I've generally felt that my career goals - and the interim steps to achieve them - were my life list. And, when it comes down to it, I don't have 100, I have one: to be a working, NYC-based actor who fully supports herself as an artist. That would be huge.

Still, this week is all about Ms. Mason so I've been gearing up to take my own stab at a Life List. I went back and read hers, I've poked around Go Mighty a bit more than I had before and a funny thing has been happening: as I've been reading and thinking this time around, the whole Life List thing feels a lot less "not my thing" than it did before. Maybe it's having a kid and not having the freedom to do whatever whenever anymore that's all of a sudden bringing me around to the idea? Or just the general (and generally different) perspective I have now versus the one I had then.

Life Lists and I still aren't running towards each other across a field with open arms but I'm feeling much more ready to take a stab. Here goes:

1. Return to dine at Chez Marcel. 2. Sleep in a fancy grown-up tree-house. 3. Visit Greece to see the birthplace of modern drama. 4. Make awesome Halloween costumes for my kiddo every year 'till he's too old. 5. Become a better sewer so that I can make (simple) pieces of clothing. 6. Finish my play; have a reading. 7. Take a bike vacation with the kiddo. 8. Take my mom on vacation for Mother's Day in 2014 (Bermuda?!). 9. Produce the web series. 10. Visit New Orleans and eat all of the things. 11. Attend a clam bake on the beach. 12. Have an oyster party where I get a bunch of oysters and shuck them and then we eat them with delicious cocktails. 13. Become an Intermediate Ukulele player. 14. Own an ice cream maker and make my own. 15. Perform the role of "Dotty" in Stoppard's Jumpers 16. Visit India 17. Make delicious Floating Island. 18. Go curling (ideally in Canada). 19. Get serious about Badminton. 20. Have a professional encounter with Jon Stewart. 21. Visit the Sol Lewitt walls at MassMOCA 22. Go back to Hawaii and become a solid "beginner" surfer. 23. Have a spritz in Venice. 24. Take a vacation with my husband and son AND a bunch of other friends. 25. Smile for a photo without feeling badly about my teeth.

Phew. That was hard. But also fun. Take a stab at making your own Life List and link to it in the comments so we can all see!