Where I Currently Stand

I have tried a lot of new things since my half birthday. For those of you following my progress, here is where I stand now.

1. Learn a dance
2. Make a $30 donation to a charity
3. Make a list of 30 accomplishments done before 30
4. Touch my toes
5. Write a book \ get an article published
6. Drive a Porsche
7. Do something meaningful for society
8. Volunteer 30 hours
9. Get a tattoo
10. Swim with dolphins
11. Invent something
12. Learn sign language
13. Lear to cook 3 new meals
14. Earn a shirt with my name on it
15. Go on the field at a professional baseball game
16. Motorcycle to the shore
17. Visit a castle
18. Go to my ancesters town in Italy
19. Skateboard/snowboard
20. Learn the drums
21. Go to a Union game- see every pro sport
22. Learn AutoCAD
23. See a rocket launch
24. Travel alone
25. Paddleboard
26. Trapeze
27. Visit the White House
28.  
29.  

Sign Language

I love sign language. Originally I knew only about 3 words (cookie, candy, and motorcycle) but it seemed like a cool skill to have. If I were ever fluent in it I would want to translate for people. I registered for a class at the local community college with a few of my friends from work. The class turned out to be a great experience because the teacher was completely deaf. Talk about throwing someone in the deep end. For the first class, the teacher had a translator to tell us what was happening. For every class after that the teacher pointed to words on a powerpoint and then signed them. We watched him and repeated.  I learned the sentence structure, some nouns, some verbs, and some common phrases. It was fascinating! The teacher was so inspirational. Him and his brother were both born deaf in Greece. When their mom found out that America had better school and opportunities for deaf students, so she moved her family to America. He ended up at a school for the deaf in NJ when he was 8. He went to a deaf college, and a hearing grad school. Now he is a professor. I really feel like having a deaf teacher made the whole experience so much more real. For 1 hour every week I communicated with someone using sign language... even if I was just using simple sentences.

Goal accomplished: Learn sign language--check! 19 down, 11 to go!