SOML | 25 things to do before you turn 25

 Today I turn 25! Halfway to fifty! To be honest, I dreaded this day (I might have had a nervous breakdown yesterday in anticipation, you can ask Joyce). I had the perfect picture of what I thought my life would look like by now, and it's no where close to that.  But I've come to realize it's so much better. God has blessed me with so much and taught me many lessons (sometimes more than once) over these past 25 years on earth. I decided two days ago that I wanted to complete a list of "25 things to do before you turn 25" but since I had a day to complete them all, I decided instead to make a list of 25 things I've done, that I think you should do before you turn 25. Some are serious, some are silly...take a look!

1. Find a home church 
   it took me a while, but I finally found somewhere I feel I really belong
2. Finish graduate school
   Pharm.D., check! RPh license, check!
3. Take a road trip with your friends
   Salvation mountain on the hottest weekend of the summer, I can't believe I convinced my besties to come
4. Bike to the beach
   doublecheck! 21 miles round trip (you know what we're doing when you get back, Natalie)
5. Start a blog about your life and update it regularly
   thanks for reading :)
6. Laugh until you cry
   probably the best ab workout ever. It's important to have friends who make you laugh! also, friends who laugh at your jokes. (side notes: one time Traci was forced upstairs because she was laughing too loud in the study room; another time, Natalie and I had to go in separate rooms because we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe; Joyce snorts, it makes me laugh harder)
7. Learn to swim
   thank you mom for making me complete all the levels of swim class from starfish & minnows to dolphin. thanks Traci for making me take the dolphin level twice. (we probably should have stayed for sharks.)
8. Apologize to someone you were mean to in high school
   you know who you are.
9. Travel to another country
   World Congress in Thailand!
10. Build a house
    Habitat for Humanity is one of the best things I've ever done. nailing roofing, climbing on ladders, using power saws and nail guns. i love it all.
11. Confront a fear
    I have extreme motion sickness so I never thought I'd be able to go on a cruise. but thanks to meclizine I went to the southern Caribbean with Traci last summer!
12. Meet your best friend
    self-explanatory
13. Sleep in a tent
    church retreats, warm summer nights in the backyard
14. Donate your hair to cancer patients
    Nallie has chopped off my hair twice already, and I'm awaiting her return to do it again in anticipation for #summatime. The first time I donated to Locks of Love, the second time to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.
15. Send a care package to someone you love
    the benefits of going to school 360 miles away from your friends and spending multiple birthdays apart
16. Tell your parents you love them
    tell your grandparents, tell your siblings, tell your best friends
17. Do absolutely nothing for a whole day
    sometimes you need a break for everything and everyone.
18. Go to the happiest place on earth
    it's probably hard to tell from our blog, but anyone who knows us knows we LOVE disneyland.
19. Ride an elephant
    so. much. fun.
20. Attend a taping to your favorite TV show
    the Voice! thanks Joyce.
21. Make a time capsule and bury it in your backyard
    this might be one of my best ideas ever. two years ago on my birthday we wrote letters to our future selves, included some mementos, stuffed them into a giant mason jar, and buried it in my backyard. maybe 8 years from now we will dig it up and see!
22. Suck it up, and buy an iPhone
    i did this yesterday. Natalie is very convincing. Matty is very convincing. I love emojis and iMessage and Facetime. I'm also easily convinced (which is how I ended up with my LG Lucid, which, according to the iPhone sales guy, was never a good phone even when I bought it two years ago.)
23. Make a friend in another country
    I met a girl who was studying abroad in the US on the plane home from Thailand. she went back but we keep in touch via Instagram and Twitter.
24. Stop gossiping
    i'm working really hard on this one.
25. Get baptized

xoxo, allison

p.s. the first picture was from Traci and my birthday party last year. we have princess syndrome.