Time and I Don’t Get Along

He has a habit for going way too fast, and Jillian Fortin wasn’t born to be rushed.

I have a draft saved in my Dashboard about the 23 Things I want to do in my 23rd year. I realized just before I started typing this post that my 23rd year started more than three months ago. THREE MONTHS. A quarter of my 23rd year has vanished in the blink of an eye, more wasted than a Longhorn on his 21st birthday (wait, did I just say that?).

So here it goes, without fanfare or fancy, Jillian’s 23 Things for her 23rd Year (the better late than never remix):

1. Visit the Motherland
2. Jazz Day with Sara Keihany(@supersara) – and we’re talking total immersion here
3. Sky Diving with Lori Logue (@llogue)
4. Rock Climbing with Jon Caballero (@CabbyJames)
5. A “Surprise” Challenge from Kelsey Ruger (@TheMoleskin)
6. Visit a Mosque with Asif Razvi (@_asif)
7. Visit a Buddhist Temple
8. Take a hip hop dance class (really nervous about this one) with Melissa Velez (@MoVelez) – updated 9/2/09 YAY!
9. Take a ballroom dance class (not nervous about this at all hehe)
10. Lay a track in a studio
11. See my little sister graduate
12. Fall in love with Austin all over again
13. Go through the Tagalog Rosetta Stone course
14. “No Technology Weekend” – spend the ENTIRE weekend without ANY sort of technology (except for maybe a digital camera)
15. Have a go at stand up comedy – I’m always being told I’m perfect for it… so let’s see
16. Lose 20 more pounds – I’ve lost 30 since I moved back to Houston and want to round off (no pun intended) at fitty!!
17. Finish reading the Bible through and through
18. Direct a successful Christmas Pageant for 2009
19. Raise $5,000 for my church youth group by my next birthday
20. “Learn to be lonely”
21. Revamp my site and my blog
22. Visit all the places I’ve been meaning to visit since 2007
23. ….and this last one is just for me.

Now, granted, there are tons of other things I’d like to achieve, but a lot of them are “getting your life together” items, whereas these topics are more for self enhancement. I’m looking for people to do these things with because I hope that others will find satisfaction in my 23 things, too.

I recently read a blog post by an old co-worker of mine who said he had been told, repeatedly, that he lacked a sense of urgency. While he used that tidbit in a comical nature (I had to admit it provided for a great anecdote), it got me to thinking whether or not I lack(ed) a sense of urgency, too. I thought about all the open ended projects I have in my life, how they cause me so much stress because I rarely get any closure (very much like many of my previous relationships… wait, did I just say that too?), and how good it feels when I finally get one of them painstakingly across the finish line. Kinda like those old cartoons where the car’s pretty much demolished and it has no tires and it’s missing a door and the driver has soot in his nose and smoke coming out through his ears.

But he has a grin on his face. Cuz he’s a winner!

Baby loves the smell of victory in the morning.

So I am urgently pleading with myself, and really with anyone who will listen. “JILLIAN, SNAP OUT OF IT! Don’t you know that every day is a gift?! And that is why they call it the present?! You SHOULD already know that- it’s an overused, cliched phrase that teenyboppers graffiti all over your Facebook wall! You’re 23 years old and have more promise than you think. SNAP OUT OF IT AND MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.”

And albeit three months late, albeit in 90 days tardy… I feel I’m giving myself the best birthday present a girl my age can give herself. I’m giving 23 year old Jillian the gift of experiences… memories I can take with me into my 24th, 25th, 30th years (that is, if I’m not senile and decrepid by the age of thirty…). You’re invited to the show and I wholeheartedly welcome you to take the ride with me… but be forewarned- I’m a crazy driver