Judged by my 18 -Year-Old Self

I was rummaging around in some boxes today, looking for something completely different, but what I found was a list my best friend of the time, Madeleine, and I wrote when we were 18. It is a list of things we wanted to accomplish in life, and the age at which we intended to have done them by. Check it out:

Mads/Mary: Have been to Ireland, Scotland and Wales (30)
Yeah, haven’t quite managed this yet, but fortunately I have 4 more years to do it in!

Mads/Mary: Get a cool tattoo (25)
I’ve got my cool tattoo designed, but I cannot yet afford it. I’d better hurry up – I only have 6 weeks of being 25 left!

Mary: Have sex with someone famous (40)
Yeah, even back then I was a skeezebag. I haven’t managed this yet, but I have every faith that I will by the age of 40.

Mads/Mary: Have lived alone, completely self-sufficiently for at least a month (60)
We meant totally self-sufficently – eating our own veggies, drinking rain-water, using open fires for cooking and home-made candles for light… Unsurprisingly, I have not done this yet, and I’ll be surprised if I ever do it! But I’d also be very proud if I managed it.

Mads/Mary: Have been involved in a threesome (Mads: 25, Mary: 21)
Actually, we both accomplished this at the same time at the age of 19.

Mads/Mary: Have a baby (40)
Plenty of time yet!

Mary: Go parachuting (25)
I haven’t done it yet, and it’s looking increasingly unlikely that I’ll manage it while I’m still 25!

Mads/Mary: Go hang-gliding (30)
I was offered the opportunity recently, but only if I slept with the guy who was going to take me (how do I find these people?) I’d like to make it by 30, though.

Mads/Mary: Go to Africa (35)
Sadly, I have not accomplished this yet. I have almost 10 years, though!

Mads/Mary: Have lived in a housebus for a reasonable length of time (50)
I’ve stayed in a housebus a few times, but I’ve yet to live in one. It soubnds like a bit of a “when the kids leave home” thing anyway.

Mary: Have been to a Tori Amos concert (25)
It ain’t gonna happen.

Mads/Mary: Own a really cool guitar (23)
It didn’t happen, and it probably never will! I don’t think I can even play the guitar any more.

Mary: Have changed my name (23)
I think I did it when I was 24, but I’m sure 18-year-old me would still approve.

Mads/Mary: Have seen Nita again (21)
She was one of our best friends in high school, but she was an international student from Malaysia, so she left as soon as high school was over. Neither of us have seen her again, but I’m still in contact with her sometimes, and hopefully one day I’ll see her.

Mads/Mary: Have joined a coven (22)
No, and I don’t think I want to anymore.

Mary: Own a motorbike (22)
No, sadly. But I firmly plan to own a Ducati by the time I’m 40.

I don’t think that 18-year-old me would be too disappointed. I think she thought I’d have managed to get overseas by now, but at least I haven’t sold out and become a corporate drone or any such thing!