
2010 was really a landmark year for my family and me. It’s hard to believe how much our lives have changed in these short 12 months, how much we have grown, and how much we have been able to do. After reading a great post by Dragos Roua about 77 things he did in 2010, I decided to follow suit and write about some things I did in 2010. I didn’t really intend to write exactly 77 things like he had, but I just happened to end up with that number when I was done writing my list.
Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list (that would be impossible – can you imagine, “I breathed, then blinked, then ate a strawberry…”), but I tried to pick some of the year’s highlights, and have listed them below in no particular order. Enjoy!
- Moved my family to Costa Rica with only 1 carry-on suitcase, and one small backpack each
- Became comfortably fluent in Spanish
- Visited the incredible ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru
- Went paragliding for the first time
- Bought a car in Costa Rica
- Changed my diet to more natural, wholesome foods, including more fruit and vegetables
- Took up the daily practice of meditation
- Hosted fun visits from family and friends
- Almost doubled my monthly income
- Visited 8 different countries: United States, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Guatemala
- Lived in a dream home with a gorgeous view for just $900/month
- Met several new friends including some native Costa Ricans who have become some of my closest friends EVER!
- Turned 30
- Tried and enjoyed some delicious new fruit – guanabana, cas, chirimoya, naranjilla, mamón chino, and water apples
- Got pulled over by corrupt traffic cops asking for bribes in Panama
- Worked an average of 8 hours per week on income producing activities (ie. “work”)
- Was interviewed by JetSetCitizen and ExpatAlley
- Watched Emily learn how to read well
- Became more open minded about religion and different belief systems
- Experienced intense Costa Rican lightning and rainstorms/downpours (and a couple earthquakes)
- Visited the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala
- Bought 2 iPads, 1 iPhone, 1 Macbook Pro, and 2 PCs. Sold one old computer, and gave one away. One of the new PC’s already broke. I will buy no more PC’s.
- Helped my kids each start their own blog: EmilyInTheJungle.com and RidingAButterfly.com
- Started writing a book about how to create an on-line business
- Attended my first “Spiritual” conference (Celebrate Your Life)
- Read over a dozen non-fiction books (mostly on the iPad), 3 fiction books, and lots of small e-books. I’ll be reviewing some on my blog shortly.
- Ate an ostrich burger in Ecuador
- Awoke every morning with the sun to the sound of bird songs, and NO alarm clock
- Took my family to Disney World and sang on “American Idol” in Hollywood Studios
- Learned how to really play foosball with proper technique
- Homeschooled my kids without a set curriculum
- Saw a man getting beat up in the streets of Quito, Ecuador, and the police standing around doing nothing about it
- Played in the warm ocean waves with my family
- Composed several piano and vocal arrangements and recorded them
- Saw the giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands
- Grew a beard
- Saw how chocolate is made and tasted it fresh from the farm
- Served as a 1st counselor in a branch presidency
- Took steps to purchase my first real estate investment property
- Watched nesting sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach at night
- Made some great friends while volunteering at a school in Peru
- Grew my business to over 1,000 paying customers
- Decided to get my Costa Rican residency
- Visited the largest water fountain park in the world in Lima, Peru
- Saw three different types of monkeys, as well as iguanas, coati, sea lions, crabs, blue-footed boobies, sharks, scorpions, llama, alpaca, large beetles and spiders, cane toads, and many more animals – all in the wild
- Finally got my tongue to properly pronounce “yigüirro” – the national bird of Costa Rica
- Got a stomach bug in Peru and threw up for several days in a row. Also got photo bombed by an old woman picking her nose.
- Hand-fed carrots to a giraffe, ostrich, dromedary, and deer
- Survived Ecuador police strikes and political riots
- Saw lots of ancient American ruins and artifacts
- Had the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had at Cafe Delicias in Grecia, Costa Rica
- Hiked to several beautiful waterfalls
- Lived with my Grandma for two weeks while visiting family back in my hometown
- Continued practicing Tai Chi as part of my morning routine
- Got a free yellow fever vaccination in Colombia
- Straddled the equator line in Ecuador
- Stopped programming and fixing programming errors. It’s now 100% outsourced.
- Realized I still don’t miss not having lots of “stuff”. But I do like to live near nice restaurants. :)
- Held a sloth, toucan, poison dart frog, rainbow boa, blue morpho butterfly (and its caterpillar equivalent), and a red-eyed tree frog
- Changed a flat tire on the highway in Guatemala
- Looked into the craters of two active volcanos
- Watched as our kids gradually taught themselves how to swim
- Met people who moved to Costa Rica because they had read my blog
- Saw a pair of scarlet macaws in flight and in the wild. Also saw blue crowned mot mots, toucans, toucanets, bananaquits, several varieties of hummingbird, and other beautiful birds in the wild, many in my own backyard
- Visited organic farms and ate some of the freshest produce I’ve ever had, and honey right out of the hive
- Enjoyed the hot springs near the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica
- Celebrated 8 years of marriage
- Volunteered at an animal rescue center in Costa Rica
- Discovered we’re pregnant with our third child
- Zip-lined through the jungle – several times
- Played with my kids almost every day
- Toured an old fort in Old Town Cartagena, Colombia
- Lived out of a small school-sized backpack for 2 1/2 months while traveling through South America
- Ate dinner with friends once a week.
- Hiked through the Monteverde cloud forest and saw the rainforest canopy from hanging bridges.
- Went surfing for the first time
- Ate lots and lots and lots of rice and beans
It’s so fun to look back and see all that we’ve done this year, and I’m excited to see what 2011 brings. In the mean time, I’m going to try and enjoy whatever I’m doing at the moment and make the most of my life right now.
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What an amazing year. You’ve almost accomplished and experienced more in this one year than in all your previous 30 combined. It will be fascinating to see what next year’s lists holds.
Love that you’re creating the life you want… outside the box.
Love you!
It was so much fun to read this list and see what you have done and what we have done together as a family as well. Amazing to see so many highlights all laid out in one blog post. We really have been busy this year, and in such fun ways! :) I love you and I am so glad we can experience all these wonderful new things together. Thank you!!!
Wow… you really have accomplished so much in this last year. It’s very inspiring, realizing how much you can do in such a short amount of time. It’s great you have such a fabulous family to share all of your experiences with (I was referring to your amazing wife and kids). :)
Love you!
What a great list of accomplishments in one short year and I’m sure the list could go on and on.
It will be very interesting and I look forward to reading next years list :o)
That’s quite an year! Let 2011 be even better! :)
Quite amazing. I,um, gee, learned how to move pictures from my iPhone to a folder on the lap top. So There!
lol. That and a lot of other awesome things, Paul. I love reading your blog. :)
Hey, Brandon- it sounds like a great year but we did have a question, what does number 19 mean?
19.Became more open minded about religion and different belief systems
Thanks for the comment! It’s great to hear from you guys. As for #19, I just realized that I have been a little fanatical about religion most of my life, often at the exclusion of some wonderful people. This year, I feel like I’ve become less judgmental of others who have different belief systems, yet believe them with just as much conviction and spiritual feelings as I have ever had in mine. There’s much more, and I can go into detail if you’d like to e-mail me privately.
Speaking of #23… I think it’s time to help them update those blogs :)
Yes, now that travels and visits are (mostly) over, we should have a little more time for that sort of thing… hopefully.
[…] ?77 Things I Did in 2010 […]
[…] year, I wrote a list of 77 Things I Did in 2010. Every time I read through it, I feel amazed at all we were able to accomplish in that short year. […]