I have had many new people come to my site within the past week. Welcome! That’s really exciting  and I look forward to getting to know you.

I have had some questions asked to me why I blog:

“Don’t only stay at home moms do that?

“Are you a chef?”

“Are you selling something?”

The answers to all of those questions are a resounding “No!” I have only been blogging for about 3 months, but so far I feel a sense of freedom that is beyond liberating.  And I have been overwhelmed at how welcoming and helpful the blogging community has been. Here is a combination of earlier posts and pictures for you to get to know me a little bit and to why I have entered the blogging universe.

“You should write a blog about cancer”. If I had a nickel for every time I have heard that statement over the past 6 years. My reply, “No, thank you.” When in all actuality, I wanted to respond, “Heck no!” You see as a cancer survivor I want to stay away from all things cancer. Maybe it’s fear, maybe it’s too heavy, maybe I just don’t want to go back there. You see, I didn’t survive cancer to live with it anymore. I survived cancer to grow old with my husband and children and to live life to the fullest. Stuff to do you see. People to meet.

When I was going through treatment, I was challenged by a former chemo buddy of 70 years of age to write down everything I wanted to do in life and “Go for it”. It was a bucket list- long before the movie. He wasn’t going to survive and knew it and told me his only regret was talking himself out of doing things.  He recognized that he was his own biggest obstacle standing in the way of accomplishing his goals. So fast forward 6 years and I was standing over a young patient that had died (I’m a nurse), and suddenly I felt flush and realized that I had done very few things on my bucket list. I was granted 6 more years yet hadn’t done all that I could have done. Not to sound like an old Army commercial with “Be all you can be” but I was granted 6 more years than my chemo buddy and I hadn’t done much of what I promised (him or myself) I would.

No longer. No longer am I going to stand in the way of myself accomplishing these 1300+ items. Will I accomplish them all? Perhaps not- but not on the account for lack of effort, money, or self-doubt. Will I be accomplished in all that I set out to do? No- but I have a great sense of humor and ability to laugh at myself along the way. Will I add more and take some things away? Yep. Why? Because it’s my list. I’m in control of my choices, actions, experiences, and attitude. At least that is what I am teaching my children, so isn’t it important that I be a visual example?

You can see a small portion of my list here. And friends, I am doing it. I am living life to the fullest. I have danced in front of the monuments in Washington D.C. with strangers and giggled until my cheeks hurt. I have been learning about photography, editing videos, photoshop, running, barre method classes, hot yoga, making jam, quilting, and bookbinding. I have been reading the classic literature books that I only read the cliff notes for in school. I am making those crazy recipes that have been sitting in a box for over 15 years that I always said I would get to. I’ve also started Project Life to record all these great activities as well as my ordinary, family photos every week. My husband and I were able to take my son to the HomeRun Derby. But my favorite (hands down) was taking this video dancing in front of the monuments:

Jenny goes to Washington from Jenny Meyerson on Vimeo.

My 2nd favorite thing I have done off of my life list is to work towards making 52 cupcakes in one year to honor my chemotherapy buddy (mentioned above). When we were sick, people would bring us cupcakes to the chemotherapy lounge, however we couldn’t eat them. Our diet consisted of Sprite and saltine crackers. He said that if we survived cancer that we should eat a different cupcake every week for the rest of our lives. He unfortunately didn’t survive. So in honor of him, I bake a different cupcake each week. The recipes aren’t mine, but I link to all of the fabulous bakers out there in blog land. And let me just say, the baking/food blogging community has been extremely gracious and supportive. And today I am baking cupcake #9.

Am I good at all of this? Not even close, but as I’m learning something new, I feel this overwhelming excitement that I can’t put into words. It feels like life I suppose. Sometimes it’s scary. Sometimes it’s funny. And sometimes it’s plain messy. But I feel more alive than I ever have in 37 years of time here on Earth.

And the best thing is that my husband, sister, parents, and kids have been fully supportive of my journey and get excited to see what is next on the list. So come along with me on this journey. It’s time to live. It’s time for all of us to live.

Come follow along on twitter: http://twitter.com/jennymeyerson

Come follow along on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Learn-with-Jenny/215863131764897