Not Afraid of 40

I've spent the better part of my late 30's dreading my 40th birthday.  It seems so old, so late, so final.  It's always been this scary deadline in the future, looming, laughing at me, knowing that sooner or later I'm going to have to face it.  Until...I decided to embrace it- much like I've started embracing 75 degrees on Christmas, never hearing English at Costco, and 8 month youth soccer seasons.  I can't change it, so I may as well enjoy it.
With that in mind, I composed a list of 10 things that I will accomplish during this- my 40th year.  The 3 main requirements for my list were:

1)  It couldn't depend on me spending a lot of money.
2)  It had to be difficult for me- something that would really make me work hard.
3)  It had to be something I've never done.

Technically, I should have begun in December, as my birthday falls on November 21, but let's be honest- I wasn't going to do any of these things during the holidays, plus I was still dealing with the fact that the next birthday would be THE ONE.  So here it is- a little belated, in no particular order, and scaring me to death:

My 40th Year "Bucket List"

1)  Run one half-marathon per month.
2) Climb Half-Dome in Yosemite.
3) Take East and West Coast Swing Dancing classes, and go to a swing club to use my moves.
4) Catch a wave on a SUP, legitimately.
5) Learn Chopin's "Valse, op.64, no.2"
6) Re-read and study Talmage's  "Jesus the Christ".  **Technically I've done this, but I was in the MTC and therefore in a spiritual cocoon, so I figured I need to do it as a "real" person.
7) Plant and harvest tomatoes and an herb garden.
8) Complete a 50 mile ride on my bike (location TBD).
9) Complete a triathlon.
10) Read a literary Classic.

Writing this down hopefully makes it more likely that I'll actually do these things, and accountability tends to have that effect, as well, so hopefully I will have something to report on as the weeks tick by.  In the meantime, I will worry less about the wrinkles and sagging, and more about the person that I continue to try to become.