I’m not usually a person to be very up-front and specific about my goals. I have them, sure, but I think that there is some small fear inside me that if I make my ambitions known to other people, then I won’t be able to achieve them, or if I have these goals, then I am prohibited from ever changing them again. Having goals and targets, however, is completely normal and, if anything, making a list of those goals should serve to remind me of my ambitions and further motivate me to achieve them.

To this end, I have dedicated this page to my Impossible List, a list of everything I want to do that has, at one point in my life, seemed like a completely unrealistic, this-is-never-going-to-happen goal. I got the idea from YouTuber and podcaster Thomas Frank who got the idea from Joel Runyon, the creator of the first Impossible List (You can also find Thomas’ Impossible list here). Essentially, the Impossible List is meant to evolve and change with you, and remind you that you can achieve the things that, right now, you think are outrageous and (in the words of Vizzini) inconceivable!

This page is inherently personal and very Kayla-specific, but I hope in sharing it that, in my desire to update this page, I will be able to hold myself accountable for putting in effort to achieve these goals. I also want to encourage others to think about their values and motivations and how they can be active pursuers of their own futures. I was going to find some fun quote to end this section, but there are so many from a variety of inspirational people that I’m going to leave that up to my reader. So, [Insert your favorite motivational quote here].

Life Goals

  • Graduate from college (B.S. in Biology of Global Health with a minor in linguistics) (May, 2021)
  • Graduate from graduate school (M.S. in Global Health) (May, 2022)
  • Go Abroad for 3 months (May, 2022)
  • Move into and pay for my own apartment (September, 2022)
  • Feel like I’m making a personal difference with my work
  • Job title: epidemiologist

Fitness/Health Goals

  • Run a 5k (post high school sports)
  • Have a weekly workout routine
  • Drink 8 glasses of water per day

Professional Goals

  • Build a personal website (December, 2020)
  • Make Podcast progress (May, 2021)
  • Update this website once a week (pages/posts)
  • Write a book
  • Pay off my student loans
    • Pay off $5,000
  • Start investing (March, 2020)
  • Max out my Roth IRA one year
  • Have my entire emergency fund in a HYSA
  • Budget effectively (November, 2022)
  • Make $1,000 from Fiverr
    • Make $2,000 from Fiverr (October, 2021)
    • Make $5,000 from Fiverr (August, 2022)
    • Make $10,000 from Fiverr
    • Make $20,000 from Fiverr
  • Earn $5,000 each month
  • Earn a $100 tip from Fiverr (December, 2022)
    • Give someone a $100 tip
  • First full-time career salaried job (September, 2022)
  • Publish my first Research Article
    • Publish my first Research Article in a non-Georgetown University Journal

Personal Goals

  • Drive myself from NY to DC (January, 2021)
  • Read 26 books this year (December, 2022)
    • The Love Hypothesis – Ali Hazelwood
    • The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
    • 101 Essays that will change the way you think – Brianna Wiest
    • Bear Town – Fredrik Backman
    • Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline
    • The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter – And How to Make the Most of Them Now – Meg Jay
    • The Guest List – Lucy Foley
    • The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton
    • Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
    • Under the Whispering Door – TJ Klune
    • Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson
    • Real Easy – Marie Rutkoski
    • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab
    • Olive – Emma Gannon
    • The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune
    • Born A Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood – Trevor Noah
    • The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
    • Bad Feminist – Roxanne Gay
    • Untamed – Glennon Doyle
    • Atomic Habits – James Clear
    • Deep Work – Cal Newport
    • White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo
    • #EntryLevelBoss – Alexa Shoen
    • The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
    • Educated – Țară Westover
    • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson
    • Woke Racism – John McWorter
    • Hood Feminism – Mikki Kendall
  • Read 52 books in a Year
  • Donate/recycle all clothes that I don’t need/want anymore
    • Have my wardrobe in 1 location
  • Get a tattoo
  • Go skydiving
  • Learn how to play every guitar chord
    • Learn how to play 3 easy songs on guitar
  • Make time to volunteer once/month
  • Donate all books I no longer need
  • Learn to crochet
    • crochet a stuffed animal
  • Practice French to fluency
  • Learn Spanish
  • Learn Slovenian
  • Figure out how to do a french braid on myself
  • Take another dance class

Travel Goals

  • Visit France
  • Go to Canada – June 2022
  • Go to South Africa – Feb-May 2022
  • Visit Taiwan
  • Go back to Slovenia
  • Go to Disneyland in California
  • Explore 10 national parks