So I’d never made a checklist before this summer, or if I did, I never really paid much attention to it. Anyways, as you can see below, I was able to accomplish most of my summer checklist, and have decided to create one for the fall. The full article includes a little blurb about the tasks I put on my to-do list for the summer.
Summer checklist:
x = done
[x] get a motorcycle
[x] work 70 hours a week
[x] go skydiving
[xB, _L , xD ] learn how to cook
[ ] learn how to front-flip
[13 times] travel to a different city every weekend
[x] get my six pack back
[x] revitalize blog
GET A MOTORYCLE
Easily the most important task on my summer to-do list, getting a motorcycle (and the license) was the first thing I worked on accomplishing after I finished sophomore year. I’ve wanted a motorcycle ever since I was in high school, and this summer that dream became a reality. I went to the RMV in Watertown the first Monday after finals, waited two hours in line, and then passed my permit test. The following weekend, I went to a Motorcycle Safety Foundation class and made sure I wouldn’t kill myself the first time I got on my own bike. After that, it took about two weeks of craigslist.com searching, but I finally found the perfect bike, and rest is history.
WORK 60 HOURS A WEEK
Not nearly as fun or exciting as the other tasks on my to-do list, but I needed a way to pay for all of my crazy adventures. I worked most of my hours at a market research consulting company, some hours for LocaModa, and the rest of my hours doing website stuff on my own time. It was good experience and I made a fair bit of dough. However, I also spent a fair bit of dough, so I still live life like the broke college student I am.
GO SKYDIVING
Something everybody says they are going to try once, joking or not, and I have finally done. Let me tell you, it was AMAZING! I’m hooked and can’t go back. If you take a look at my checklist for the fall, you will see that I am working on getting a skydiving license before I ship off to travel the world in December. The ultimate goal is to get a flying squirrel suit and soar over places like New Zealand just like this guy.
LEARN HOW TO COOK
A skill that all men should have, even if it’s something simple like pasta and bread, my goal was to able to survive on non-microwaved food for the summer as I had previously relied on if I wasn’t eating dining hall food or eating out. I would say it was a success as I can now sustain myself for breakfast, cooking scrambled eggs, bacon, and then toasting bread or waffles. Hey, c’mon, at least it’s a start. For lunch, I can get by making a sandwich, but other than that, I was not very successful. I ate most of my lunches at work during the week (which were paid for by the company, so there was no incentive to pack a lunch), and on the weekend, I wasn’t home, so I wasn’t making lunch then either. I did successfully cook ribs, pizza and several kinds of pasta and noodles for dinner, so at least I have some variety there. This will continue to be a work in progress, but it is safe to say now, that if I were in the Sims, my level of cooking skills would not catch the kitchen of fire.
LEARN HOW TO FRONT-FLIP
Sadly, I cannot claim to be able to front-flip at will. However, I did successfully complete a few front-flips on a trip home at the tail end of summer. Unfortunately, my front-flip requires ideal conditions, which in this case, is about a 50-foot strip of grass which are few and far between in Boston, and I have to be at full energy. When I started, the first thing most people asked was “How to do you practice that? Don’t you die if you fail?” The truth is, no. It’s not that hard to have a safe landing if you know what you are doing. And yes, I did know what I was doing. For all of the crazy activities I go out and do, as random as they sound, I do my homework first. In this case, I found plenty of videos that helped explain the finer points on front-flipping. Once I get that down, I’ll move onto a wall front-flip, like I did from a backflip, to a wall back-flip.
TRAVEL TO A DIFFERENT CITY EVERY WEEKEND
I’m currently working on this post. But here is a summary of my trips with summary highlights.
May 22nd-23rd: Dedham, MA – Motorcycle license class
May 30th: Concord, MA – Walden Pond
June 5th-6th: NY/NJ – Mike’s b-day clubbing, Toy Story 3 in NJ
June 10th-13th: San Ramon, CA – Cady’ Grad / seeing high school friends twice
June 19th-20th: Allston, MA – chill weekend in Allston
June 26th-27th: Hyannis, MA – Trip down to Cape Cod
July 2nd: Lady Gaga Performance
July 3rd-5th: Quincy, MA bonfire/moving stuff to Boston
July 6th-10th: Wisconsin – family reunion: 14 cousins, 3 siblings, 5 uncles, 1 aunt.
July 16th-18th: Boston, MA – Inception, Catch Me If You Can
July 22nd-25th: Boston, MA – Despicable Me, Varun’s 21st b-day
July 31st-Aug 1st: Hyannis, MA – Back to the Cape. Pirate adventures ensued.
Aug 3rd: Black Eyed Peas Concert
Aug 5th-7th: Kansas City, Kansas – Student Alumni Association Presentation and ASAP Conference
Aug 14th-15th: NY/NJ – skydiving, Asian karaoke bar
Aug 21-22nd: Norway, ME – visiting aunt, uncle, and two cousin’s cabin in Maine
Aug 27th-29th: San Ramon, CA – surprise visit home for Mom’s bday
Top Cities:
Boston, MA – 3
San Ramon, CA – 2
Cape Cod, MA – 2
NY/NJ – 2
GET MY SIX PACK (BACK)
What can I say about this one. Well, I didn’t do anything special for this part. I think mostly the traveling on my motorcycle with a load on my back, intense dancing, and eating healthily by learning to cook, all contributed to this accomplishment. I built a solid core in high school for baseball, and as a male with a high metabolism, have been blessed with the ability to stay in shape by just being active. I hope to keep this up by staying active for the rest of my life. There will always be bigger and better challenges! (see fall checklist)
REVITALIZE BLOG
Since you are reading this (hopefully someone is reading this), you can tell that I have successfully started to blog. I created the site over a year ago, and have finally started updating it on a “regular” basis. I’ve been slacking on The Economist and WIRED magazine updates because I am still getting my mail box issues sorted out, but as soon as I start getting them again, I will make posts with a week of publication (once a week for The Economist, once a month for WIRED, and every other month for Technology Review) in addition to my other travel updates and random thoughts. I hope you like what you find.
All the best,
Ethan