My mission: Conquer a new challenge every year
Instead, I have always aimed to try at least one new thing every year. Some of my things have been big (learn to fly a plane), some have been small (do something with my hair besides wear it in a ponytail. Every. Single. Day.).
This past January, I decided I’d climb a “fourteener” aka one of the 53 mountains in the state of Colorado that tops out at over 14,000 feet. Me being me, I picked the tallest one, Mt. Elbert (14,440 feet o’ fun!).
From January to April, I did 15 practice hikes up a ski slope (you get some weird looks when you’re struggling up something other people are happily skiing down). I headed back to Colorado during Fourth of July week with the goal of spending a solid 10 hours conquering Elbert.
Thanks to my Parisian mom, I grew up eating cassoulet. But what I really wanted was carbonara. While I have some mad kitchen skills for things like roast chicken, no one makes Italian like Italians, so I never tried to duplicate any of my fave pasta dishes—until now. I admit, I still have a long way to go (warning: meatballs brown really quickly), but my first foray into classic Italian cooking turned out to be a huge hit (get the recipe right here).
Is mastering spaghetti and meatballs a feat worthy of a year? It’s no fourteener, that’s for sure. But not all goals have to be life changing to give you an amazing feeling of accomplishment and expand your world, even if just a little. If a French girl from Michigan can teach herself to cook like a Nana, you can tackle something that feels out of reach. It might be a sky-high peak or, every once in a while, it might just be one super tasty dinner.
xo Karen the Editor
POSTED IN Karen the editor, Dec/Jan 2013