I have this book by Moorea Seal called The 52 Lists Project. It is a year long journal, where once each week (on Monday nights at 9pm) I sit down and write a list. There are prompts for each week. Everything from ‘List the things you treasure most’, to ‘List your accomplishments’, to “List the words that define your personality’. Now I’ll probably be the first to admit that some of my lists are stellar, and if I had more space to write, I would have kept going. But some of them are terrible. Sometimes I just don’t have the energy or interest in sitting down to write my weekly list. But I have, nonetheless, made it thus far. And as I sat down last week to write my list entitled ‘List the things that make you feel peaceful’, I realized that I hadn’t re-read my lists since I started on January 1, 2016. Wow, I thought, all this time, and you haven’t bothered to see where you’ve been and how you’ve changed? Way to go, Lizzy. Needless to say, I spent the next few hours re-reading lists 1-43 and all I can say is wow.

I want to share with you my very first list that I wrote last New Year’s Eve. I will share it exactly as it appears in my book (with infinitely better handwriting, I might add), and then you’ll see my thoughts on each bullet point in italics next to it.

List 1

List your goals and dreams for this year.

(in no particular order)

-Be less stubborn, GO with the FLOW more (Que Sera). Still stubborn, but I will say I am trying to go with the flow more… ask me next year how well that’s working out.

- DC MEMOIR** (all caps and two asterisks because it’s important). Did I write a memoir of my semester “abroad” in DC? No. Do I still want to? Yes. Will I do it at some point? Not in the near future.

-Survive the rest of junior year. Happy to say I did. Barely.

-BE THANKFUL. For everything. The good, the bad, the ugly, the embarrassing, and the AWKWARD. Still not thankful for the embarrassing, but I am thankful for this crazy thing called life. And I would venture to say I’m more awkward than I was then but who knows.

-STAY optimistic. Smile always. I love to smile, so that’s good. And while senior year of college is way harder than anyone ever warns you, I’m still fairly optimistic.

-(Written in horrible 3^rd grade cursive)- Better Bandwriting!!! See what I mean? Sorry this is written so poorly, but MY GOD, learn how to write better. You’ll be happy to know that my handwriting is just about the same. Maybe a little better, but I gave up on cursive altogether which I feel bad about, but it truly was hideous. You wouldn’t want to look at it if I sent you a nice card.

-BOY (in giant bubble letters). Because, lol, it’s about time. Need I explain more?

-Look at the stars more. I have to admit, I definitely look at the stars way more than I did, and if nothing else, it gives me a little bit of time to reflect on my day or my life or something. Also they’re beautiful and it’s so hard to wrap my mind around the crazy thing we call outer space, so I like to stare at them and think about that too…

-Write the number 2 like that instead of the other way with the loop. I know that may sound confusing, but I know you all know what I’m talking about. AND you’ll be happy to know that I now write my number two the correct way (2) and I am thankful I made the switch.

-NEVER (and I mean never) forget that family is #1. Oh, they are. They will always be.

As I look back at this list and what I wrote 43 weeks ago, I can’t say I haven’t changed. I have. And it’s pretty darn cool to see how my list-making has improved over the past 9 ½ months.