22.5 before Twenty-two and a Half

So, I was planning on holding off posting this for another day or so to avoid shocking anyone with so many updates in the last forty-eight hours, but hellacious thunderstorm blew in and is actually keeping me from mowing the lawn. It would be a shame to waste such good writing weather, right?

Anyway, I saw something similar to this on a Tumblr account that I stumbled upon over the weekend. Basically, it's a list of things I want to accomplish before I reach my next birthday. Seeing as I'm already halfway to 22, though--scary thought!--I decided to bend the rules a little bit. My graduation date falls conveniently near my half-birthday next year, making it a much more realistic date to achieve so many goals. Or that's my excuse for now. So, here we go; my list of 22.5 things to accomplish before May 22, 2011.

1) Graduate from college--this is pretty much inevitable, but it's still a huge milestone, so I figured I'd include it;
1.5) Graduate Suma Cum Laude, which might be possible assuming I ward off senioritis;
2) Finish my novel-in-progress;
3) Have something published, whether it be a short story, an article, or a letter to the editor;
4) Run a 5k in under 30 minutes or a 10k in under an hour;
5) Get into one of my preferred graduate programs with funding of some kind;
6) Play Quidditich;
7) Attend at least one game/match/meet for every one of the teams at my college;
8) Have a date to a dance--This might be a little bit of a stretch, but a girl can dream, right?
9) Go on a road trip somewhere--ANYWHERE--with only friends;
10) Take a crazy number of pictures so I can remember everything that happens;
11) Cook a meal entirely from scratch;
12) Swim in the Reservoir;
13) Decide where I'm going to live/what I'm going to do with my life;
14) Plan and execute a truly fun social for my hall;
15) Dance with someone who actually knows how to Salsa;
16) Find a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that is actually healthy;
17) Garner an actual following for this blog--is 50 people entirely unreasonable? 20?
18) Break my addiction to Starbucks' Chai Lattes--again, unrealistic, but necessary if I'm going to be living on what they pay graduate students;
19) Apply for the Rhodes and Kennedy scholarships--this is a complete "Hail Mary" just so I know that I tried;
20) Visit Paris and Prague;
21) Learn to like either red/orange/green peppers;
22) Successfully plan a surprise birthday party for my sister's 21st birthday.

So, there it is, folks. Lots of pipe dreams and a few completely random entries. Feel free to nag me about them, if you'd like; maybe I'll actually get some of these done :).