All I Want Is Travel, Art, Health, and Family
Response to DEP prompt 42 of 52: ‘Write a wish list’
I am honored to write my first story for Dancing Elephants Press. My thoughts often tend toward darkness, so I’ve been searching for a way to turn my writing toward happiness and light. DEP prompts do just that.
Wish lists are tools to keep track of what you want. I want material things, sure, like a collection of musical instruments and a whole room to house them in. I’d also like:
- a nice garden with great landscaping
- more dogs and cats
- a house decorated with art I have made, and with classical-style art, like replicas of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and classical pillars.
But much more importantly, I want to move through the world like a normal person again. Nine years ago, I became disabled and now can hardly leave my house.
I want to be able to sit without a headrest, to sit and talk to people without my vision blurring and me losing comprehension of language. I’d like to walk for more than very short distances.
And oh, I’d like to run again
It would be so great to drive again and to have the freedom of solo driving for hours wherever I want to go. I love to travel, and I want to make travel a lifestyle.
Europe is my great love. Hitting every country there? Yes, please! All 50 U.S. states and most of Canada are also on my bucket list.
Traveling solo, traveling with my parents — both would be great. I also long to be closer to my cousin. Maybe we could travel together.
If I lived closer to a bigger town, perhaps I could make a few good friends of the same religious and political leaning as me. I’d love to have friends who feel like family, and we could travel together, too.
Art must always be part of my life
I want to:
- learn to paint, sing, dance, and draw
- become an expert photographer
- write memoirs and poetry
- make a living as a novelist
I’d like to have a flexible schedule so that I can structure my days how I please.
And the most important thing of all — family
For a while, I imagined I would marry and have a child. But at 38, I’ve come to accept that I’ll never have a baby of my own.
I know that women plenty older than me give birth, but I can’t function on one sleepless night, let alone years of them.
Rather, I’d like to adopt a preteen or teenager, once I regain my health and have the financial means. I’m an only child and desperately want to share the love that my parents gave me.
I want to work on regaining my health and mobility, retain those things to a ripe old age so that I don’t continue to struggle with health problems.
I hope that I’m always able to live with my parents. We have an astoundingly close bond and it would be heartbreaking to leave them.
Lastly, I want the ability to live in the moment, not worrying about my parents aging and dying. I don’t want to waste away our life together.
Thanks for reading! Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles suggested this prompt: “Write a wish list and share it with us.”
I enjoyed Joyce Nielsen’s story about realizing she is a child of Nature:
