Do something daring every year

Last night Richard and I had a great date.  We talked about things and asked each other strange questions like "if you were featured on the cover of Time magazine, what would you want the tagline to read?"

One of the questions was "What is the most daring thing you have ever done?"
Richard's answer was "ask you to marry me!"  I think runner up responses for him would include:
1) get kicked out a mall for setting up a tent and campfire in the mall
2) run mostly naked through a Wal-Mart
3) run a half marathon with just 6 weeks of training
4) hike Angels Landing with a fear of heights

When I thought about it, the thing that took the most guts for me was to serve a mission.  My hands used to tremble sometimes when I would think about going out to contact in the morning.  I still sometimes wake up in the morning, relieved, that I am not a missionary anymore because it scared me so much.

But I have this other part of my personality that is thrilled by doing hard things and pushing my limits.  I realized about a year ago, that I hadn't pushed myself toward anything in awhile.  I was sort of coasting.  I wasn't growing, I wasn't changing (except to get older), I wasn't progressing.  I was inspired when a friend of mine made 30 goals for herself the year she turned 30.  So I started thinking about goals I could make for myself-- goals that did not revolve around my children.  All the goals I could think of revolved around 1 main theme-- increase my talents and push myself.  So this is what I have been doing:

I started a garden (I have a couple of baseball bats growing in my zucchini plants...)
I ran a ragnar (loved it.  I didn't wash off my ragnar tattoo for about two weeks and got a little bit of flak for it at church :)
I signed up for an ultramarathon (the Middle Fork 50k in North Bend on September 21)
I tried out for a choir (and was accepted!)

More about these last two items.

I love to sing.  And you wouldn't know it if you just asked my kids ("mom, can you please stop singing?!" whenever we are in the car), but I think I have a pretty good voice.  Despite not even making first callbacks for my high school choir, I somehow persevered and with a few lessons and became not terrible.  A few years and a mission later (and singing every day on that mission), I was in a college womens choir.  I have sung in some stake performances and performed some solos in church.  A few months ago, I was invited to audition for a new choir-- the Seattle Ensign Chorus and Symphony (a kind of regional Mormon Tabernacle Choir).   So I signed up for an audition slot on my mom's birthday.  I prepared a song I loved to sing and showed up prepared to accept whatever happened.  The audition was pretty intense.  The whole thing was recorded.  I first had to tell why I wanted to be in the choir.  I told them that I was auditioning on my mom's birthday because my mom loved singing and had inspired me by auditioning herself for a choir 15 years ago after she had worked a 12 hour shift at a hospital (and which she is now happily a part of).  My mom had been daring and I was going to be daring too.
First they tested my range.  Then they tested my sight singing ability (pretty poor if you ask me).  Then they tested my tonal memory by playing random groups of 4 or 8 notes and having me sing them back.  Then I finally got to sing my song.  But...then I had to sing the same song with no vibratto ("think of the Vienna boys choir" she said), and then after that I was supposed to sing the same song like an African spiritual.  Well, you know how much African blood I have in me.  What I lacked in authenticity, I more than made up in my enthusiasm!
And that was my audition.
Well, I got in.  And I am pleased as punch.  The first rehearsal was amazing.  I felt so honored and blessed and I am so excited to be stretching myself again.  I want to be better.  Heck, I want to be in MoTab someday, so I better start practicing.

The second thing I have done is prepare to run an ultramarathon.  A 50k is roughly 31 miles.  But it is not on roads, and it doesn't always have a well marked path.   This race will cover mountains and rivers and everything in between.  But a marathon distance just wasn't that hard anymore.  I could run 18 miles and not even be sore that same night.  I know what you are thinking (either "I can't believe she is so egotistical" or "why don't you just try to run a marathon faster?"). But the truth is, since I can't/won't/refuse/hate to sprint and really only have the one running pace, running the same distance faster is not an attractive option.  I would rather just increase the distance to push myself.  So here I go.  I probably will regret this and I may throw up at some point.  But at least I will have done something daring!