31 new things
in 31 days
In the middle of June 2017, I wrote "31x31" at the top of a piece of paper and taped it to a wall in my house. Over the span of a few days, I spitballed: what have I always wanted to do? Be it frivolous, indulgent, embarrassing, or terrifying. If I were to "dance like no one was watching" or whatever. But what if I let people watch sometimes?
I got such awesome, supportive feedback for this project, for which I'm so grateful. A couple people wanted to know which challenge was my favorite: I LOVED the advice booth, so I sort of feel like I blew it out a little early with Day 1. Soulcycle was something special. Honestly it just felt really good to check so many personal goals off at once. Like not professional goals or artistic goals, which I push myself to prioritize. But goals fer mah souls. I also hardcore love learning, so this was so good for my heart. Not to mention, this project gave me an excuse to hang out with some humans of extremely high quality.
Here is a finalized list of what I did this month:
-Free advice booth in Washington Square Park
-Aerial yoga
-Sing where it echoes (outside a church)
-Make an Instagram story for the first time
-Order something from Starbucks’ secret menu
-See The Moth live
-Go bouldering
-Buy a lotto ticket
-Get a spray tan
-Outdoor yoga in Bryant Park
-Visit the New York Public Library
-Give strangers good luck
-Soulcycle
-Make dog cookies
-Citibike
-Miracle berries
-Visit the Raptor Trust
-Pineapple pizza
-Learn to Charleston
-Care packages for homeless
-Learn a card trick
-NYC donut tour
-Read tarot for someone I haven’t before
-Watch Star Trek
-Make a death mask
-Reconnect with a favorite schoolteacher
-Write a limerick
-Fly a kite on top of a building
-Self-guided tour of Grand Central
-Try a new cocktail
-Make a new cocktail
Day 1: Free Advice
Max came along with me for this first one, which was very nice of him, because I was very nervous. There was nothing to be nervous about! I made some signs and packed everything we'd need, and we set up our booth from 11:30-2. In 2 and a half hours, we had nonstop people fill that chair. People wanted advice on roommate conflicts, job searches, marriage proposals, business marketing, finance, stress management, and some people didn't even know what they wanted advice about, they just wanted to test our chops. We introduced ourselves, set our dollar-store timer for 5 minutes, and got cracking. When we felt done, we packed up our table and chairs and left right before the rain came. Nice little Saturday, as Max would say.
Day 2: Aerial Yoga
This almost completely didn't happen because for some reason I thought the class time was an hour LATER than it was! The whole frantic ride down to Princeton, I was kicking myself. I'm never late! Why didn't I double check the class time last night? How could I fail so early on in my month-long project?
Then I tried to remember the advice I seemed to give over and over to so many strangers yesterday: stop being so hard on yourself. Forgive yourself more.
So grateful that my friend Niki let me sneak in to her Aerial Roots class VERY LATE, just in time for a couple inversions and a really awesome savasana. Look ma, no hands!