Recently, I was reading an article on people who makes list of things they want to accomplish before they die. My first inclination was to join them in making such a list, something I’ll start shortly. But before I do that, I want to take time to appreciate some great experiences I’ve already had in life. That’s this list. Over time, I hope this list grows, at least in part by items migrating from the other list.
- going pheasant hunting in Nebraska with my father on a brisk fall morning
- killing my first deer on a hunting trip with my best friend
- graduating from Vanderbilt Law School
- being chair or co-chair for the Nashville Pride festival for three years running while seeing attendance grow and taking the organization from $3000 in the red to $12,000 in the black when I left
- riding in a hot air balloon in New Mexico, getting lost from the chase truck, crashing through the trees and having to hike through the desert to find a phone
- riding in a helicopter over the big island in Hawaii
- riding in an open cockpit biplane
- talking to someone and seeing them decide to accept Jesus Christ as their savior
- skydiving, which was paid for as a birthday gift by my brother when I was in college
- traveling to Europe and the Soviet Union following college graduation
- spending Christmas 2006 in Paris with close friends and staying in a hotel within sight of the Eiffel Tower
- going on two all gay cruises in the Caribbean
- deleted – a bit TMI
- buying my first home
- being a foster parent for 5 years
- cruising Prince William Sound in Alaska and seeing vast glaciers and bald eagles flying free in the wild
- sailing Sandusky Bay on a sailing boat with a good friend and college roommate with the added bonus that Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” came on the radio while we were slicing through the water beneath the wind pushed canvases
- coming out to myself, my friends and my family
