Miami Student

Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: OpEd Page

I was going to write this Perspective article on my type-A tendency to keep lists. Though often silly and sometimes trite, throughout my busy days, lists have a terrible tendency to dominate my life. I thought this would be a great opportunity to show deep connections between my daily "to do" lists with my "list of life goals." It was going to be a sentimental, slightly witty piece. It was going to be great.

So one evening during Winter Break, I set up to write the article. But after ripping my desk drawer apart, I couldn't find my "list of life goals." Anywhere. At all. An old, crumbled sheet of yellow paper,

this list wasn't just a typical list-I had marked where and when I completed some of my major life moments.

Travel to Ireland, Germany and Poland: Completed in the spring of 2006.

Have a memorable first kiss: Completed April 28, 2004 with Noah Myrent on my front porch.

See the sun rise and set in the same day: I completed this goal, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember … it was written on the darn list, after all.

So I spent a good half hour ravaging my desk drawer, sorting through old newspaper articles and Time magazines, wondering why on earth I needed to keep half the things I did. (Did I truly need my recorder from third grade? It's not like I ever mastered the instrument.) But after I realized that the "list of life goals" was somewhere in the abyss of journals, notebooks and papers I haphazardly keep, I slowed down and looked at what I was pulling out of this little drawer.

Currently entering my second semester of senior year, I had been in a bit of a funk. I'm not sure if it was the daunting job search or the reality that I'll be leaving a place that I've grown to love, but I just was out of my traditional spirit. For example, typically I love jogging. But during Winter Break when I went to the gym, I could not even step foot on a treadmill because I just did not feel it. I used every machine except the treadmill and I could not figure out why. I would not say I was close to any kind of depression-I am very excited to begin this next stage in my life. I just felt out of it, a bit disconnected, and I could not pinpoint what it was or why I felt that way.

But two words of wisdom, two trinkets from my past shook me a bit that evening. Rattled me. And left me staring at the ceiling that night and feeling once again like I was on the right track for my life.

One was a letter from my Advanced Placement German teacher in high school, a man who our class respected and loved more than any other teacher in high school. He sent us an e-mail the day before the AP test encouraging us to do our best. It resonated with me, so I printed in out and stashed it away.

Continued...

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