I want to see all the countries in the world and learn all the languages. I want to have thousands of friends and I want all my friends to be different. I want to play six instruments. I want to be the best in the world at two things. I want to be a great athlete and I want to be a great surgeon. I need to practice very hard every day. I need to sleep as little as possible. I need to read at least one major book every week. And I need to remember that my seventy years are going to go by too quickly.
ATTRIBUTION:
Diana Nyad (b. 1949), U.S. long–distance swimmer. Other Shores, ch. 4 (1978).
Written by the future marathon champion in 1959, when she was ten years old, as part of an essay entitled “What I Will Do for the Rest of My Life.” She was assuming a total life span of eighty years.
