The List

Coming to Fruition

Let me start off by first introducing myself.

My name is Anne. I just turned 27 and I am recently single. We won't go into detail about the break up or 'the ex' right now. At some point it may become relevant, but this journey isn't about 'the ex' or the relationship. It's about me. It's about Erin. It's about our journey.

Moving forward, I love to read. Like, more than just about anything in life. It is my guilty pleasure. The day I discovered Wattpad was one of the best days of my life!

I started by reading the 'After' trilogy (this was the whole reason I had discovered Wattpad in the first place.) I read an article about these books, it was debating whether or not we should celebrate and indulge in a story about such an 'emotionally abusive' relationship. Let me tell you, it is a beautiful piece of fiction and Anna Todd should be commended for writing such a real, true to life story and not just some 'picture perfect' love story. There are a lot of people going through the situations her characters faced. While I was reading 'After' I shed a lot of tears because many of the scenes in her books mirrored my life so perfectly. While I was reading the trilogy I had not yet gotten up the courage to let 'the ex' go. 'After' was my therapy. Once I finished these literary masterpieces, Anna Todd is a bomb writer and it didn't take long at all, I started reading random stories that were suggested by Wattpad.

Some of them were really good and some were reeeeally bad!

A lot of the suggested stories are One Direction fanfic (due to the fact that 'After' was the first thing I read on Wattpad) Judge all you want because I'm not one bit ashamed of this either. I like a lot of their songs and they're all bloody gorgeous! The thing that I love the most about fanfic, or any sort of fiction really, is the way that these people, the fans, take these boys that they don't even know in real life and they turn them into characters, give them new background stories mold them into their own version of whatever/ whomever they want them to be and then that write an entire book about this new, fictional version of them. I think it takes a lot of creativity to create characters and stay true to that character, all while making it interesting to read.

Bear in mind, just because I think it is a beautiful art form does not mean I will continue reading if the book is utterly horrible. There have been a lot that I start and can't even get through the first chapter on! And not just in the fanfic books! I'm a bit of a grammar snob and it makes reading un-edited, unpublished books a challenge. Due mainly to the fact that I am constantly editing the book in my head while trying to get lost in someone else's story and in the lives of these fictional characters.

So, among the good books from suggested reading, I found 'Acquaintances' written by billlieex. It was the second book in a series, following 'Friends' which I also read and loved.

In the book there is a list given to the main character, Charlotte, by her grandmother to complete over the next year. Something about this list stuck with me. I found myself re-reading it over and over and over again. So I decided that I would tweak it minimally (the book is set in England and I live in the US, so some of the destinations were unreasonable on my budget, as I am in no means rich) embark on this year long journey of completing my version of the list.

I will go ahead and clarify right now that I wrote to billlieex before I started writing anything, in my journals or on any pilocarpine forum. In writing to her I asked for her express permission to use and change her list, which she ever so graciously granted! I will forever be grateful for that, not only for her excitement that someone was going to be completing a list inspired by her writings, but because for some reason I just felt that this was a story that needs to be shared. Even if a single soul never reads it. I needed to share it for myself.

Now that we have the formalities and a little bit of back story out of the way, allow me to introduce my friends. I have a close group of about 4 friends. These are people that I would go to the ends of the earth for. Among them are Kelly, whom I work with (currently and at my previous job) and Erin. I met both Erin and Kelly at my previous job, bartending at a little hole in the wall called Beaux Bar. I had casually known Kelly before that, from nights of going out, but she and I didn't actually become friends until I started working with her. Beaux was vile, due to our drunken idiot of a boss. Sadly, he was actually pretty tolerable until about 20 beers in. He has no idea how to run a bar, so he is frustrating as hell, but he isn't bad over all when he is sober. After he gets drunk he is a complete asshole and becomes unbearable. Erin and Kelly made it bearable for me on his drunken nights. One of the best things that has ever happened to me has been getting out of that bar and not having to put up with that man anymore. Just a friendly word to the wise, don't do pleasure where you do business. It's not just a saying, it is a recipe for disaster and the quickest way to run your business into the ground, especially if you own and bar and you're a nasty drunk.

Erin, Kelly and I call ourselves the BB3. (Beaux Bar 3) The three of us enjoy the occasional night out, filled, usually, with excessive alcohol consumption and all around shenanigans. Don't get me wrong, our nights out are usually few and far between. Especially with all three of us together. But they are always the best nights! These girls single handedly got me through one of the toughest times of my life to date, which was my recent break up. That relationship consumed my life, as did the break up for a while. We will talk more about that later, I'm sure. But not now, as it isn't pertinent and doesn't get to consume my story.

One particular night out with just Erin and me (Kelly was at work) was on June 1st. After getting to the bar, catching up for a little while and getting a round of 2 for 1 drinks, since it was ladies night, I mentioned the list and had Erin read it. We immediately decided that this was something that we HAD to complete and that it needed to be together! And, as they say, the rest is history!