My Five Week Plan

I like to know exactly where my life is going and I am a bit of a control freak, and for those reasons “ten-year-plans” don’t work for me. The concept is good, but ten years is a long and a lot of things can change, and when that happens I feel lost because my life isn’t where I planned it to be ten-years before (silly, I know). For example, when I was fifteen I wrote out a ten-year plan that included a husband, a house, at least one kid, and a job as a teacher. When I was about twenty-three I revised the plan to include law school within five years. Twenty-five was a really hard birthday for me because I had none of the things I had planned and my job at a law firm had cured my desire for law school; I felt like I had failed and I wasn’t sure where to go next (learning to go with the flow is an on-going process for me). In retrospect, I am glad my plans did not pan out because at fifteen I had no clue of the amazing things the Lord had in store for me. While I would love to be a wife and a mother, that opportunity has not yet come along yet and I still have time. I have had so many enriching and fulfilling experiences over the past decade that I wouldn’t have been able to if I were married but will make me a better wife and mother (my mission for the LDS church and traveling the world with my job are among the most significant). As for law school, I would be miserable if I had followed that plan; a career in law is definitely not for me. Instead of writing out ten year plans I find it’s much better for me to have long-term goals. Goals are much more flexible than trying to determine exactly where my life will be.

All that having been said, I have decided that short-term plans, those within the foreseeable future, are perfectly okay. So, I decided to write out a five-week plan of all the things I hope to accomplish by the end of my contract.

My Five-Week Plan (a lot of it is food based, don’t judge):

-Eat as much paella as my stomach can hold (I’ve done it before – I was uncomfortably full – and I’ll do again)

-Taste wrinkly potatoes (a specialty of the Canary Islands)

-Take a picture of Rick’s Café

-Buy myself a parasol in Cadiz, Spain (by the time I decided I wanted one last time the shop was closed for siesta)

-Acquire a healthy “glow” (My dermatologist would kill me if she found out I was tanning and I usually go straight to red, but it would be nice to go back home a shade or two darker than pasty white)

-Quote Casablanca as many times as humanly possible while in the city of Casablanca

-Find really unique Christmas presents

-Find a monkey charm in Gibraltar

-Find something to be in awe of each day

-Eat pizza in Italy

-Try to use the language of the country as much as possible, even if it's as simple as saying “gracias” instead of “thank you;” I'm in their country

-Buy Italian yarn

-Take time, when visiting churches, to step out of tourist-mode for a moment and spend a moment reflecting or being reverent

-Eat a lot of pastries

-Take time to notice the people and the character of the city instead of focusing solely on the major landmarks

-Enjoy myself

I'll try to keep you updated on whether or not I stick to the plan. These next five weeks will be a great way to end the contract.