Ryan is a picky eater. And once he's had a bad experience with a food, he bans it from his life. Recently he's been discovering what a bad idea that was. And now he feels like he needs to catch up on all the cheesecake and sushi he's been missing out on.
I am not a risk-taker. I'm always trying to hedge my bets. I live life far from the edge. I plan out my schedule, my vacations, and my free time. And I can see what I'm missing. I know it looks fun. I don't want to live with regrets. But I'm afraid to step out.
So this year we've been trying to do new things. To say yes to every new opportunity.
We dug up our own Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
I learned the Wobble. And I taught Ryan the Cupid Shuffle.
We got addicted to sushi after one date night. So addicted that I didn't even get a good picture of our food.
We spontaneously changed our evening's plans (from watching TV) to baking pretzel bites and having a game night with friends.
We planted an herb garden. Again. Even though I'm sure I have a black thumb.
I know. Big scary stuff.
We built pieces of furniture for our house (and plan to do more!)
We started a saltwater fish tank.
I learned that I could rock a summery scarf.
We fell in love with Craigslist.
For the first time since age 5, I'm mixing patterns. Cautiously.
We made our own jam (the easy way).
I started dying my hair. I had always wished it was darker, but was too afraid to try it. (Still too afraid to try bangs again!)
We took a vacation in the mountains even though it didn't feel like us. And it wasn't.
And all of those things that we were too afraid to do or that we didn't think we'd enjoy.... we enjoyed them. Even vacationing in the middle of nowhere with horrible TV reception and no cell service to speak of. I'm not sure we'd do it again, but we still enjoyed it.
So here's to another year of saying yes. I hope next year I can look back and see a list even more impressive than this one. (And let's face it, some of these things won't be hard to beat.) But one step out of my comfort zone is still stepping out. Now I've just got to take the next step and the next and the next and the next.