Instagram: @365firsts
The idea behind 365 Firsts is to do one new thing that I've never done before every single day for an entire year. I wanted a challenge for myself and to experience things I have never experienced before. I wanted to do good for other people. I wanted to motivate others to step outside of their comfort zone and try something new. Those three goals are what drive 365 Firsts.
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| Day 1: Graduate with 2nd Bachelor's Degree |
Complacency drives me insane and nothing is more frustrating than seeing others waste their lives when you know they could be broadening their horizons and flourishing instead. I have no political or religious agenda with this project and in fact, I'm trying to show that you don't need politics to make a change and you don't need religion to do good for others. If you're following me and looking for me to judge or bash people, it's not happening. If you're expecting me to be a perfect person with no flaws, that's not me. I'm just here to be myself and I'm not going to pretend like I'm something different than exactly that.
Some of the smallest things like running in the rain can totally wake you up inside. Writing a nice note with $5 on it and sticking it on someone's car could completely make that person's day. Turning social media on its head and using it for interesting or impactful content can motivate others to follow in your footsteps and try something new and it could change them in so many ways.
Month 1 is done! This first month will probably end up being the least exciting out of they year, but I had to start somewhere. I have some big things planned for down the road and I can't wait to experience them when the time comes. It's only been 30 days and I can already tell you that I have completely awakened myself in so many ways.
I've always been adventurous, even as a little kid. I've always liked to try new things. A few years ago however, I found myself stuck in rut. I barely did anything besides go to school, be lazy, and eat. Don't get me wrong, those are all great things, but in moderation and I definitely was doing them in excess and it showed. Let me tell you, I don't miss being that way and I know I will never be that way again after having woke up a few years ago. It's like I dropped the bad, got back all of the good and piled on a bunch of new things that has turned me into who I am now. Mix that in with the craziness of the last few years of my life and all of the life changes I've experienced, and all of that has led me to starting 365 Firsts.
My biggest fear (along with spiders) is dying young without ever having done the things I wanted to do or growing old and looking back on my life with regret that I didn't do more. Just a week before starting 365 Firsts, I was having lunch with a group of people for a friend who had just graduated from college. We were at a microbrewery and an elderly lady sitting across from me ordered a beer. She very much enjoyed the beer (maybe a little too much if you know what I mean) and said, "oh! I never knew I liked beer before!" Those words rang through my ears like a gunshot. I'm not judging, but I honestly can't think of one thing more terrifying than that. Not discovering that I liked or disliked something as common as beer until I was 85 years old?! No way. Not happening with me.
If I live to be that age, you can be certain that I will know without a single doubt everything that I do and do not like because I'm going to make sure I experience as much as I can in my life before it's done, whether it's something major or something minuscule. The scope doesn't always matter. I'm doing everything from something tiny like making popsicles on day 2 to some pretty major things down the road which you'll see later if you follow along. It's like a switch turned on in my brain and instead of pushing things off or being too nervous or scared or lazy to do something, I'm just going to do it, every single day for a year. I started that process 30 days ago. Check out my individual posts and the biggest things I learned after my first month.
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| Day 3 - Visit a Bass Pro Shop |
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| Day 4: Place a Rose on the Gravestone of a Person I Never Knew |
This one had more of an impact on me than I initially thought it would. I bought a rose planning on placing it on a headstone that moved me in some way as a tiny form of tribute to someone's life that I never knew. I parked my car and walked across hundreds of headstones in the rain wondering who these people might have been. I walked up a hill looking around until I almost walked straight into a very short and muddied headstone which read, "devoted son, brother, and daddy to..." It also said, "loved his family." This man was only a year older than myself. There was an empty flower holder with some rain water in it just asking for the rose I bought to be placed in it. Funny how things work themselves out. Puts my life into even more perspective.
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| Day 5: Eat Brain |
A fried brain sandwich sort of tastes like really dense and neurony meatloaf. If you're ever in Saint Louis, check out Schottzie's for the best (and only) fried brain sandwich in town.
http://www.schottzies.com/
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| Day 6: Bucket Style Delivery Method |
This one was great. Coolest Jimmy John's delivery guy I've ever met. He thought the idea of lowering a bucket from my 3rd floor balcony to give him the money/receive our food was the best idea ever. He didn't have to walk up 3 flights of stairs, he got a big tip and he got a few laughs out of it. I'm sure it made his day.
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| Day 7: Buy a Cake for my Co-Workers (because they're awesome) |
I work with some amazing people at Old Navy and have met some of my best friends during my time here. A cake isn't enough to show how great and hard working these people are let alone how good of friends they are, but hey, it's something! When you stop thinking about yourself all of the time you realize how much other people actually do for you. It was funny getting all of the Snapchats with people shoving cake in their mouths for the next few days.
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| Day 8: Light a Flare |
I enjoyed it! My brother on the other hand burnt his hand immediately and threw it on the ground.
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Day 9: Visit a Winery
So lucky to have an amazing local winery only a few miles from where I grew up. The Danenberger Family Vineyard in New Berlin, IL, is a really cool place that makes their own wine, has food from a local Springfield restaurant and has talented musicians playing on Sunday's. This place is great. If I'm rambling it's because I'm 4 glasses of awesome wine in. http://www.danenbergerfamilyvineyards.com/
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Day 10: Bet on a Horse Race
Had NO clue what I was doing and just rambled off names and numbers to the teller until apparently I said the right combination of words and she punched some stuff in and asked for $2 then pointed to the TV behind me. Apparently my race was getting ready to start and I quickly lost. It was worth the comedic relief of completely guessing my way through the whole process and looking like a moron.
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Day 11: Put Together a 1,000 Piece Puzzle in 1 Day (failed)/ Eat Horned Melon
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I haven't done a puzzle in probably 10 years and have never came close to doing a 1,000 piece one, so I thought it'd be a good idea to pick a hard one. 11 hours later...
This is me curled in the fetal position after working on this puzzle all day. I definitely only finished about 1/3 of the 1,000 piece puzzle. Maybe I shouldn't have picked such a hard puzzle, or maybe I just bit off more than I could chew. Luckily I bought a horned melon the other night as a back up plan and tried that before midnight. I still tried something new for the day and I'll finish the puzzle eventually! Not anytime in the near future though since I'm going to have nightmares about puzzles for awhile. Today might have been a "fail" but I'm glad I gave it a shot and got top it off with some weird spiky fruit that looks like an alien.
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| Day 12: Random Town Road Trip |
Today we took out an Illinois and Missouri map and pointed blindly to a town to go to for lunch. I ended up pointing to the tiny town of Pilot Knob, MO, 2 hours away. Interesting place and name. Had lunch there at a local place and then headed north to Springfield, IL, to introduce my friends to the infamous Horseshoe from Darcy's Pint before heading back home. Had a good time with everyone!
http://www.darcyspintonline.com/
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| Day 13: Leave a Nice Note on a Random Person's Car |
I drove to Wal-mart and saw a car that had a big thing of pictures with two little girls and what looked like someones husband or boyfriend, draped over their rear-view mirror. The car was a little beat up and the widows were cracked a little bit because of the heat so I just dropped it in the driver seat. Even though it's small, hopefully this made a tiny little positive dent in someones life. Whatever you do for other people doesn't have to involve money, just do something nice for someone because it could mean more to them than you'll ever know, so try it out.
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| Day 14: Go to Ballpark Village |
I'm a huge Stl. Cardinals fan and I still haven't been to Ballpark Village or a game yet this year because of the craziness of school, etc. This place is awesome! Happy to celebrate my good friend's birthday here. Good times with good friends.
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| Day 15: Hold a Chicken |
The chicken's name was Honey and she hated me. I also held a Silky. Pretty simple. I think I'll be vegetarian for a day or two out of respect for Honey even though she was an ice queen.
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Day 16: Go For a Run While It's Raining
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Of course I've been caught in the rain many times before, but I've never decided to go for a run after it has started raining. Rain and running are everyday things we barely think about, but combining the two was actually really relaxing, fun and refreshing and being the only one on the trail (cough cough), I closed my eyes for stretches and just zoned out just listening to the rain and feeling it hit my skin. It helped purge some things from my head and just kind of woke me up a little bit. Some people driving by at the end of the trail looked at me like I was crazy because we wouldn't ever dare want to do something that society thinks is weird. They looked at me like, "it's raining you idiot, why are you running? I'm obviously smarter than you because I would never do that, derp derp." I just looked back thinking, "you're missing out."
Starting to Get Noticed!
Looks like my 365 Firsts list is spreading around a little bit! Miss Tyra L.A. with 29k followers on Instagram just followed my post the other day of the note I left on the random car with $5 attached and did the same and shared it to her followers. That's a potential 29 thousand people that could see it and also spread some good around or just make someones day by doing something as simple as that. So glad to see it! I've also had 4 people tell me they're wanting to start their own 365 Firsts as well. I started out this list with the rigid idea of doing things for myself so I can experience stuff I've never done before, doing good things for other people, and finally to hopefully get people to step outside of their comfort zone and live life a little more because sometimes that's what it takes to get out of a rut. You're bound to come out of the other end better in one way or another, glad to see it's making a tiny impact.
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Day 16: www.freerice.com
I found out about this website that is completely free and all you have to do is take quizzes on a subject of your choosing and they donate 10 grains of rice for every answer you get correct. The questions get harder as they go along but it's actually fun! All it takes is a few minutes of your time, no money at all. It's good knowing that you are helping to feed hungry people across the world by simply answering some geography or grammar questions. I spent about a 30 minutes and donated 1,500 grains of rice. 1,500 grains of rice isn't very much, but if a lot of people do it and do it numerous times (like I plan on doing), it can actually make a little difference. Try it out if you're bored! It's a great way to kill some time and do some good. |
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| Day 17: Ride "Tilt!" On the Hancock Building in Chicago |
1,000 feet in the air in a glass class that tilts you 30 degrees out from the Hancock building! I don't like heights, but this was pretty awesome.
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Day 17 (part 2): Chicago Architecture River Tour
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Day 17 (part 3): Willis (Sears) Tower Skydeck
I did this exactly 24 hours before the glass cracked the next night!!! When I woke up the following day I had a bunch of text messages and notifications about the protective coating cracking. Yikes. I'm glad I did it before because I probably wouldn't do it now since I'm scared of heights. Anyway, 130 floors, 1,353 feet up sitting over the lights of Chicago in an extended glass box. Peaceful and terrifying at the same time. Amazing view and I'm really glad I did it. I'm only "scared" of three things and heights is one of them so I'm pretty happy with myself for that day!
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"The people look like ants... I'm absolutely terrified... well-dressed city ants."
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Day 18: Eat Lunch with Complete Strangers/The Wiener's Circle
Today was so awesome for so many reasons. First of all I went to the infamous Wiener's Circle for a hot dog, then took a $20 wasted cab ride by myself while my friends did something else to go to Hot Doug's, another famous Chicago hot dog place (yes I'm definitely getting some calories in today) and it was closed! I sat there by myself on the sidewalk deciding what to do when I see a woman in a nice business suit looking in Hot Doug's. I tell her I just looked and they're closed until Thursday. She asked what I was doing and I said I was just sitting there deciding what to do next. She said, "Not anymore. Hold on let me call my friend." She called her friend Dave who was supposed to meet her at Hot Doug's and asked him if I could join them. He was more than happy to have me join along and so he picked us up and brought us to Kuma's Corner for an awesome lunch and some beers. After that and getting to know some pretty awesome strangers, they brought me back so I could catch the L. Even though it was small, it's just kind of one of those days that restores your faith in humanity a little bit. There are some pretty cool people out there and Beth and Dave from Palo Alto and Chicago are two of them.
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Day 19: Watch Casablanca
Day 20: Tell Someone Something You've Always Wanted To Tell Them But Never Have
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Day 21: Get a Manicure/Pedicure
Yes... I did. A mani/pedi as you ladies call it. I was uncomfortable going in, uncomfortable doing it and didn't feel normal until I left the place, but hey, I did it! Definitely not very "manly" but that's not the point here. Anyone that knows me well knows that I HATE even being barefoot let alone having my feet messed with. For me, it's like nails on a chalkboard when I walk on carpet barefoot. I'm not sure why but it is and it's definitely annoying. I squirmed like a fish out of water when the girl took the pumice stone to my feet. My leg shook almost uncontrollably and I actually started sweating I hated that part so much. Yeah I know, it's weird and sounds stupid but the whole thing I have with my feet is a major deal to me so I'm happy with myself for not running out of the place screaming like a little girl. Can't say I'll ever do it again but the manicure was nice though!
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Day 22: Make Homemade Mouthwash
2 cups of filtered water, 4 tsp baking soda, 8 drops pure peppermint oil, 8 drops pure spearmint oil. Pretty simple and it works. Has a kick to it. Just don't put in a bottle that will leak all over your stuff like I did. My P90X3 DVD case didn't fair too well as you can see below.
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Day 23: Drive a Convertible
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Day 24: Make Origami
Made a crane, named him Loose-Leaf. I have much more appreciation for Origami now after having made this. There are so many intricate details. It blows my mind has anybody originally came up with even the most simple origami let alone the extremely complex and detailed sculptures.
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Day 25: Learn to Say Something in Sign Language
I'm saying, "Hi my name is Travis. Tomorrow for my 365, I am going to have a psychic read my future. Peace!" I'm sure there are a few mistakes, but that's life.
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Day 26: Have a Psychic Read My Future
I'm not here to say if I do or don't believe in this stuff, but I left a little freaked out to be honest. She was dead on with stuff in my past. BUT, apparently I'm supposed to have a good future coming up so that's good! A new girl, marriage, some kids, owning my own business... ya know, all that good stuff.
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Day 27: Hot Yoga
I've done yoga probably 150-200 times over the years, but never hot yoga. They crank the heat up to 99 degrees and you do pretty intense yoga for an hour and a half. It was awesome. Sweat drips off of you like a leaky faucet and you can just feel your creaky body opening up. I almost collapsed during camel pose because I've only done it once and didn't realize it cuts the circulation off to your head. When it's 99 degrees in the room, you quickly start to notice the little things. I highly recommend hot yoga to anyone with some yoga experience. I feel awesome right now. A clear mind, stretched out body and about a gallon and a half of sweat lighter.
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| Day 28: Donate to End Child Sex Slavery by Becoming a Partner in the 26 Second Challenge |
Every 26 seconds a child is sold into trafficking, most are little girls sold into sexual slavery. www.destinyrescue.org has the "26 Second Challenge", with varying degrees of donation. I chose to become a partner and donate $26 monthly to help prevent or rescue these children from sexual slavery. A few years ago I saw a video in one of my classes about little girls in India being forced into sexual slavery. These girls were as young as 1 year old and ranged into their teens. To this day, I have never seen anything more impactful or shocking. When the video ended, every single girl in the class was wiping tears from their eyes and all of the guys were completely stone faced. My entire mood changed for weeks. That was 2 years ago and I still think about it on a regular basis. I still say if I was to ever become extremely rich, my new focus in life would be to help these kids. For now, this is at least somewhere to start. If you have a child or if you've even looked a child in the eyes, you realize how innocent and loving they are. Just remember that they're privileged to have you. Halfway across the world, other children who should be innocent and loved and having fun are instead being raped, tortured and murdered on a daily basis for the amusement of others. This website has the option to donate even just one dollar. I worked a small 4 hour shift today at work and that more than covers my first month. That's all it takes. If you've read all of this post and are interested in donating, visit www.destinyrescue.org and check it out.
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| Day 29: Build a Terrarium |
This turned out ok for having no clue what I was doing. I only got stuck by the cactus about 40,000 times so I'm calling it a success, even though half of the people I've talked to think I built a tarantula house. I mean, I guess it could double as a place for a tarantula to live, just like how a human could live in a refrigerator box with a branch and call it a house. I've never really put much thought into terrariums before but now I have a new found respect for when I see them, especially good ones. Now to see if it survives....
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Day 30: Make Jell-O Shots
Good way to end the first month of 365 Firsts, making Jell-O shots for a friend's 21st birthday party. Creamsicle- whipped vodka, triple sec with whipped cream and sprinkle stuff. Pretty good!
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Day 31: Submit My First Blog Post!
I took some big things away from this first month. I learned that I am a worse planner than I even thought. I learned that it's ok to do things by yourself. I'm sure I'm like most of you and enjoy doing most things with other people. I feel a little weird and uncomfortable doing things by myself normally, but that is quickly going out the window. After doing many things like hot yoga, seeing a psychic, and having lunch with total strangers by myself, I've learned that it's not so bad. Don't hold yourself back from experiencing something because you can't get someone to go with you. I know that many more of the things I will be doing will be by myself and that's totally ok because it's helping me to grow in ways I never before realized.
Another big thing I learned from this first month of this project is that stepping outside of your comfort zone is even more important and rewarding than I initially realized. "Don't live the same year 75 times in a row and call it a life" - Robin Sharma. Without getting too deep, this quote has really stuck with me because it explains almost exactly my outlook on life. There is so much to experience in life, even the small things. Something as simple as planning a run in the rain and actually doing it and running 4 miles sounds so silly and small, but that day was one of my favorite of the month. It was so refreshing, invigorating, relaxing, and it cleared my mind and woke me up. I know that I'll do that many more times from now on and probably throughout the rest of my life.
It's only been a month, but it's been really great so far. It's been a whirlwind, it's kept me extremely busy, and I've had a lot of fun and learned a lot of things. I've done some good for other people along the way and have also inspired at least 4 other people that I know to start their own list of trying new things. This was my goal all along so I guess it's working. I have some major things planned for this summer and later in my journey. Thank you for checking it out and I'll be posting to the blog every week or every two weeks from now on so check it out!
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