Embracing the Unconventional: My Past

In honor of today's historic and unconventional events, I've decided to kick off a three-part series that shares a bit about a few of the items from the 50 unconventional things to do in your lifetime list of Lyved.com -- some of the things I have done, some of them I hope to do, and some of them I will do...as soon as I'm a published author.

Today, I'm going to share my past with you, and I invite you to share some stories of your own.


Things I Have Done:

2. Go on a ghost tour. The time: Spring Break '04, Freshman Year. The place: New Orleans, LA. The people: me, my mommy, and a really hot tour guide (oh, and those other people). We did all sorts of tours--ghost, vampire, and voodoo--but my favorite was the ghost tour. It's a shame that I don't even remember which one it was.

6. Pan for gold in a mountain stream. Who hasn't? I've panned at Six Flags, Disneyland, a creek in several of my backyards and at several rivers across the country. Sadly, like most prospectors, I went broke and got syphilis from the local saloon...wait, that's not right.

7. Watch the sun rise and set in the same day. I have one word for you: college.

8. Go outside and dance in a rainstorm. Not surprisingly, another college memory. It wasn't so much romantic as it was cold and sopping, but my friends and I had a blast.

19. Go camping somewhere that has no contact to the outside world. When I was a kid, this was a pretty regular occurrence. I can't believe that I was alive when there were no such things cell phones and Blackberrys. Man, my kids are going to think I lived in the stone ages.

22. Take a spontaneous road trip. Ah, Spring Break '06. That trip is the winner of the "best spontaneous road trip of Sam's life" contest, but there have been several. I like to drive, and I grew up in Texas. Some people would consider the one hour it took me to get to a mall a road trip...

23. Write an article for a newspaper or magazine. I wrote movie reviews for my college paper, The Eagle, and I was published in the school's lit mag, AmLit. So there.

24. Fail several times at something. Ha. Does this really require elaboration? I'd say I do this daily, several times daily.

28. Work a job you hate. I don't really hate things. I don't believe in wasting my energy like that. But there have been several times when I hated aspects of some of my past jobs, and therefore was not too fond of the job itself.

29. Get to know yourself and those closest to you. I hope that I've done a pretty good job of this so far, but it is an ongoing process that I'm sure I'll still be working at on my deathbed.

30. Hunt for treasure. I do this everyday if we're being metaphorical. If not, I'll confess that I did have a beach-combing period when I was a girl.

33. Befriend an enemy. Enemy is a strong word. But I've made friends with rivals and people I initially disliked before. I hope I never have a true enemy.

34. Make friends with very successful people. I consider several of my friends very successful people, all in different ways. I know some people who are successful in business, love, self-actualization, humanitarian efforts. And I try to learn a little more from them every day. Besides, it's all about networking, right? :D

35. Take one day to just watch the clouds and take one night just to watch the stars. How I miss those lazy days of yore. Trampolines will forever be synonymous with stargazing and cloud-watching thanks to my neighbor from junior high school. "Oooh, was that a UFO?" "Nope, I think it was a satellite." "Damn."

41. Find what you were meant to do. Hi, my name is Sam Elliott, and I'm a writer. *waits for the chorus of "Hi, Sam"s.

42. Live without email, IM, or your cell phone for a week. If I'm not counting those crazy years from my childhood, which I shall henceforth refer to as "those days," then I still have achieved this amazing feat. I lived for two whole weeks in Rome, Italy without them. Although, I caved after that and began using all three. What does that say about these days?

43. Join a peaceful protest for a cause you support. Italians aren't only good for amazing foods, good looks, relaxed ways, and historical landmarks. They are also incredibly apt to protest. During my time in Italia, I was invited to participate in a protest against the cancellation of a fine arts budget, and I did. It was empowering and powerful, definitely a memory and experience I'm glad to have.