25 and fabulous?

August 13, 2009 6:09 AM

My 25th birthday is coming up and I've been brainstorming on some projects I can do this upcoming year that I can blog about. Help me come up with some brilliant ideas to keep my 25th year exciting and productive.

I anticipate getting engaged in the next few months so I'm sure that will be taking up some of my time so I don't think I can undertake any HUGE projects. Nor hugely financially expansive ones. Also, I've lost about 50 lbs in the last 6 months so I've sort of checked that off my to-do list. (Only 10 or so lbs to go.)

I've been a member of 43things.com so am thinking along those lines. A like pre-kicking-the-bucket bucket list (though I guess you never know!) I just want to make this year an extremely awesome one. I anticipate having kids early after getting married so I want the flexibility to get some stuff done now.

Anybody have any suggestions for must-do awesome things?

I live on Long Island. But travel back to Michigan occasionally to visit family/friends so places in between are accessible to me.

Thanks.

posted by mittenbex to Human Relations (8 answers total)

Do you like animals? You could volunteer at your local animal rescue shelter, then blog about your work finding adoptive homes for the doggehs and kittehs. Point being, I suppose, that any volunteer work will be exceedingly rewarding and chocked full of potential blog material.
posted by netbros at 7:33 AM on August 13, 2009

My friend took a photo of himself every day for all of 2001. The results are on his blog. I know a few people have done this, but he did make it a goal to make the photos as interesting as he could, which meant doing a roadtrip over the summer, visiting other countries, finding friends and family members to be in the photos with him.

It's a bloggable project that also gives you the opportunity to travel and get friends involved.

Another friend does a picture a day around a certain part of his life:

A Year in Pictures of Living Together
A Year in Pictures of Comedy
posted by miniminimarket at 7:44 AM on August 13, 2009

Your 26th year, no?
posted by Jonathan Harford at 7:48 AM on August 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Have you heard of 101 things in 1001 days? It's similar to 43 things in that you set goals of various sizes for yourself. But you could scale down the number to 37 (which is the same proportion, just under 10 days per thing) or even 50.
posted by soelo at 8:02 AM on August 13, 2009

Take up an instrument.
Travel to a huge music festival across the country.
Some kind of theme road trip (hit all the sports hall of fames, take a pee off every bridge, I dunno)

I don't know about exciting, but going through all your old stuff, sorting it, tossing old stuff, keeping important stuff, and all the reminiscing that goes along with it could be a good project. I know I wish I had gone through all my things before I got married; less stuff to move.
posted by mikeweeney at 8:23 AM on August 13, 2009

Response by poster: Yes, guess it makes it my 26th year. Ooops!
posted by mittenbex at 9:06 AM on August 13, 2009

seconding the one-photo-a-day idea. I did it everyday in 2008. It allowed me to shoot better photos. I learned to look around me for something visually interesting every day : an unforgettable experience.
posted by Baud at 10:45 PM on August 13, 2009

Seeing as you're young and healthy, how about learning some basic circus tricks that will amuse and delight the future children: juggling, walking a tightrope, mastering the trampoline and walking on stilts. Do they have circus school anywhere around where you live? Can you do a headstand? Handstand? Do coin and card and basic magic tricks? My DH's grandfather was still do headstands in his 80s much to the delight of the kidlets. You could ask the SO to photograph you. Small magic tricks are a great way to interest kids and make them quiet for a bit. Can you dance? There are all kinds of small skills that you could learn this year that you can keep and use forever. Or, you could make it a year you gave someone else a piece of your time and helped them to a better life. Literacy tutor is always a good one.
posted by x46 at 1:36 AM on August 14, 2009