K’s Bucket List: The Jordan Year

Today is my 23rd birthday. April 23rd will always be the greatest day of all time, haha, just jokes. Turning 23 also means that I am entering the “Jordan Year”. It’s just another year in all actuality but it’s that iconic number 23. I’m making a reference to Michael Jordan, widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time for those who aren’t aware. Throughout his career he mainly wore the number 23 and the number 23 serves as an iconic number for sports fans to admire. 

 

Time flies way too fast. I never thought that these days would come way back then. Before I know it I’ll be 33 years old. Hopefully at that time I’ll still be living in good health and enjoying each day of life as I take on more experiences and accomplishing goals like I’m striving to do now at 23.

While I was at work the other day, I thought of this “Jordan Year” concept which I will go into further detail about right now. I have my bucket list still intact, which I’m going to use that as inspiration for this idea. I’m going to try to accomplish 23 goals from my bucket list within the next year. So by April 23rd of next year I hope to accomplish these specific 23 goals that I’ve set out for myself to achieve. My focus will go toward completing these goals first and foremost. Of course if I can do something else on my bucket list, I’ll try to complete it as well. I’ll use the basketball emoji to symbolize completion of a goal. 🏀

1. Dunk a basketball on a 10 foot goal. Michael Jordan is widely considered as one of the greatest dunkers of all time. I can at least throw one down in his honor. I can grab the rim and that’s about it for right now.

 

2. Go watch Kobe Bryant play a basketball game. He’s the closest thing to MJ, gotta see him play once. This next season may be his last so it’s a good opportunity to see one of the greatest of all time “ride into the sunset” if you will. This is for sure going to be one of the most expensive ones on this list. Bonus points if I can go to LA, if not then it’ll probably be in Oklahoma City or Chicago. I’m excited to work a lot of overtime shifts to fund it… 😵***🔫 

 

3. Complete at least 10 items from the “Pay It Forward” section of my bucket list. I have plenty of ideas in my mind and I’m excited to document them on here and on my YouTube channel. These are probably the most entertaining to do, whether it be thinking of the ideas or actually performing them. 🏀

 

4. Go on a road trip by yourself. Scary idea but why not try it!

5. Learn how to swim. Can’t be so stereotypical… Plus swimming is a great workout!

6. Get my Associates Degree. Way too many setbacks, it would be nice to finally get this 2 year degree and pursue a career that I enjoy.

7. Learning how to cook healthier meals for myself. I can workout as much as I want to but there will be very little progress unless I start to eat healthy. As far as weight goes, I weigh 207 as of this morning which means that I’ve gained 7-8 pounds since the beginning of the year, oops… I’m thinking of trying to get into the 185-195 range. That is still uncertain due to how I feel right now at 207. I feel great at this number but this may be an opportunity to slightly get better. I think as apart of the “toning up” process, I may try to drop some more pounds. 

8. Get really good at jump roping. I would like to jump rope like a boxer that you see training for a big fight. I want to learn all of the tricks and I’ll be excited to add it to my workout routine. (Replaced a previous idea on April 29th, 2015)

9. Run another half marathon or another race in general. Currently training for another 13.1 miles at Hospital Hill in early June. This may be subject to change, we’ll see.

 

10. Learn how to dance. Gotta learn sometime. I’m not sure if I want to dance like something you see in the movies such as “Step Up” or “You Got Served” but I gotta step my game up in that department. 

 

11. Learn how to play either the saxophone, the drums or the guitar. I love music way too much. I gotta get that musical touch back in my life again, I miss having the ability to play music. 

   

  

12. Learn how to speak Spanish. Being bilingual is a good thing that could benefit me in the long run and plus, why not learn a second language.

13. With one of my 10 “Pay It Forward” ideas get your friends involved with it. The more the merrier! Also if there’s friends of mine that would like to participate with one of these ideas I’d be glad to collaborate with them to do something great for others. 

14. Cook a Thanksgiving or a Christmas dinner. This may completely contradict the idea of eating healthy but these are definitely the days to cheat.

15. Sign up and run a marathon. This is probably the perfect time to sign up for one. I’ve been training hard for a couple of half marathons, why not try the full 26.2 miles? (Replaced previous idea on April 29th, 2015)

16. Go to a Kansas City Chiefs game and a Kansas City Royals game. These are pretty easy and seeing how both teams are good I should experience them in person for myself. 🏀

 

17. Take steps to improve my saggy stomach skin. My stomach at the moment isn’t very appealing to the eye. I don’t like it but I’ll accept it as showing the hard work that it took to get down to my current weight. I’ll take looking like I do now as opposed to being 110-120 pounds heavier like I used to. I’ll definitely take perks such as being able to run faster, longer, jumping higher, etc. Any small improvements would be great. By the way, the picture on the right is how I look for those who may be curious. The other picture is the more recent picture from my half marathon last Saturday.

  

 

18. Choose a career path and start working towards that path. I know I want to do something that helps other people feel better about themselves but exactly what that is, I’m not sure a at the moment.

19. Meet a celebrity. Who that is, I’m not sure just yet…

20. Help my parents to lead healthier lives. I love my parents dearly and I want them to live as long as they possibly can. 

21. Go to a concert as an adult. This is one of those sad but true facts about myself. The only concerts that I have been to in life have been to band concerts in high school. I love to listen to music so this should be a fun one to cross off. 

 

22. Take a vacation and go to a tropical place. An expensive idea but it should be a fun one. Where to go? Where to go?

23. Become a more confident person and learn to love myself more. I have no idea why I struggle with being confident. This is the best I’ve ever looked/felt in my life but yet I still struggle with confidence and self esteem. This is one that I’ll hopefully notice as time passes by. 

I’m looking forward to getting these goals completed and documenting them on here as well as my YouTube channel. I promise to do a better job of filming these goals. I might have to invest in a new camera. The iPhone 6 plus is awesome but it can only do so much. 

I think that this is a good idea for myself to experiment with different ideas to get out of my comfort zone. By putting my list out there for everyone to see, I’m holding myself accountable for completing the goals. At this point I’m just happy to be alive and well, that’s what’s most important for me right now. I’m looking forward to my 23rd year of living and I thank everyone who has supported me so far. 

Thank you for reading! Love you all! Have a great day! ✌🏿️

My First Half Marathon!

Athletic Goal #4

This was a unique experience for me to say the least. Running 13.1 miles is probably the hardest thing that I’ve ever done physically in my life. However I’m very glad that I did this and I’ll be looking forward to more races in the future.

  

Considering some of the circumstances that I had to deal with, such as running on 2 and a half hours of sleep, not previewing the race path beforehand, for the most part running on a treadmill for training, running in basketball shoes for 4-5 months, I’ll take a time of 2 hours 12 minutes and 47 seconds any day. 

Originally I was gonna go for under 2 hours but since I worked the night before and didn’t get off until 2:30am and didn’t go to sleep until 3:30am, I was satisfied with just finishing the race. 

When I first started the race I was pretty intimidated. Seeing all of the runners that were there made me feel a little out of place. Think of it like someone going to the gym for the first time and seeing people who are healthy and well in shape. Then I thought to myself that everybody here is sharing the common goal of finishing the race. Some happen to be faster and more experienced than others and that’s okay.  

 

I was nervous at the start of the first mile. I soon realized that running on the treadmill where you can adjust how fast you run is wayyyyy different than running outside where at least for me is a little harder to pace yourself. However I soon found that pace with ease. Then I started to just listen to my music and daydream about whatever I could possibly think of. 

Running on the treadmill is okay for me, I like to people watch while I’m at the gym. Seeing “meatheads” lift weights with bad form and checking out the pretty girls with the tight clothes on at the gym is cool as well (I’m a creep…). That doesn’t compare to running outside when people are cheering you on every step of the way. The scenery was great, the signs people came up with were clever: 

  

There were people dancing, bands playing music, I seen some people making some beer along the route as well… Haha.

Around my 4th mile or so, the nerves went away and I was able to just focus on my music and go. I didn’t care about trying to go fast, I just wanted to pace myself throughout the race. I’m surprised that I was able to keep going and not stop throughout the race. I wanted to stop, but I thought of everyone that has shown support and I was able to keep going the whole time. 

The greatest feeling in the world was crossing the finish line. My body was aching, I was tired, sweaty, hungry but I managed to finish. I used past memories of myself struggling to run a mile in 20 minutes to help fuel myself to run 13.1 miles in a little over 2 hours. Although as I’m typing this, I’m stuck at home with sore legs, a sore right foot, calves are hurting bad, I’ll probably end up doing this again in the future. When I first started training  in late November, I never thought I would be able to do this but I’m glad that I did and I’ll remember this experience for the rest of my life.  

 

Thanks for all of the support and thank you for reading!

Check out the video and check out my other videos as well!

http://youtu.be/1VpCCZDsLQ8