Making lists

I like lists. They help me be goal-oriented in a way that my self-diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder finds particularly satisfying. I make a summer reading list every May of books I wish to encounter in my time off from required reading. More often than not I will include the most recent book I completed so that I may begin my list with an accomplished task. Few things are more fulfilling to me than marking things off a list.

I also make lists as reminders. These lists mostly appear when I am packing for a trip or preparing for a presentation. They're far less task-oriented than my other lists, and they help combat my poor short-term memory.

I made a list last night that is far different than any of these others lists. I wrote down the names of twelve people. Seven months from now it will be the first day of January 2011. I will have graduated from Belmont and will be on the next part of my life's journey, whatever that may be. I have seven months left at Belmont and, perhaps, in Nashville period. This list is comprised of twelve people with whom I want to invest my time, people I want to learn more about. I am exceptionally close to some of them. Others, by comparison, I barely know. Yet this is not some arbitrary list. Each of these people has stood out to me for one reason or another. I want to be intentional in these relationships because I have a strong feeling that there is a lot I can learn from them.

I suppose my challenge to any of you reading this would be that you sit back and consider who in your life would be on your list. With whom do you really desire to spend time? Life is far too short and rapidly-changing to be unintentional in relationships. Judging by the names on my list, it is going to be a very insightful seven months.

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