"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

I read that in a book when I was 16 years old. Two years later, my high school published the school's yearbook with that as my senior quote. It touched my heart, opened eyes blinded in a world with faces hidden behind cell phones and laptops — a world where too many fall into a pattern of comfortable habits. I anticipated my life to be a dazzling array of stories and adventures, hoping for days spent in new countries and nights spent staring at new skies.

This morning, on Christmas, I opened a carefully wrapped gift tucked underneath the tree with my name on it. Taking the wrapping off and flipping the gift over, I looked down to see the words "My Bucket List" written in gold on a black book. Opening it, the first thing I read was "My Bucket List —101 Things I Want to Do with My One Wild and Precious Life."

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? There are so many large, beautiful hopes that are dreamed up by souls that have plans for their lives, plans that go far above and beyond simply going on to work a nine-to-five. Rather, they are dreams that exhibit the very nature and innermost hopes of a precious heart. So often, we are sucked into the day-to-day habits, not realizing that those moments when we choose to work one more hour over making tea and watching the sunset are slowly becoming little pieces that are even more slowly becoming our life. We watch one more episode of Netflix and read one less novel. We set deadlines over when we should be married, as though love keeps a timeline, over setting deadlines as to when we need to see that city we've always dreamt of seeing. And slowly, those little habits become our nine-to-five's — our years spent in the same city and our realization of all of our forgotten dreams when we were 16 when we are on our deathbeds.

Along with my favorite quote, I have one favorite book. This, of course, is a great accomplishment for someone who can hardly ever make up her mind. Half of my great love for this book is simply the reaction on people's faces when I tell them that my favorite book is called "Cold Tangerines." Inside of this collection of stories of great hope and tragic optimism, I have a favorite quote:

"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad He gave life to someone who loves the gift."

I want a life that is filled with swimming with jaguars and learning how to surf. I want to backpack through Europe and write beautiful thoughts on napkins in coffee shops. I want to climb mountains and wake up to see the Earth awaken to a million colors painted across the skies. I want to drink tea next to crashing waves and know what lavender smells like in France. I want God to know, under all the stars, that I am grateful for every single one of them.

So tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?