15. Shave My Head

I remember being in dance class in Kindergarten looking at my hair in the bathroom mirrors and thinking one day I’ll shave it all off. Not your typical six year old little girl thoughts, I know. Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to shave my head. I’ve always wanted to know how it feels, and get the satisfaction of getting rid of it all in one swoop. Over the past two years, I have really been considering it. After having waist length hair for the longest time, I was tired of dealing with all the tangles and hair falling in my face. This past summer I was really close to doing it, and of course, I chickened out. Fast forwarding five months, I finally did it after a backpacking trip with some of my closest friends in West Virginia!

My friends encouraged me and got me super excited about it. That night, right when I got home, I showered, then shaved my head. Well technically I cut pony tails off my head to donate, and then Timmy shaved it. It was so liberating. For the following week, I could not stop touching my head and kept getting surprised when I looked in the mirror. If you’re considering shaving your head, totally go for it. It feels so good, is easy to maintain, and is a good talking point. I don’t regret it for a minute and definitely see myself doing it again some day. 10/10 (seriously)

-Caitlin

37. Camp on the Beach

 

 

Assateague Island was a blast.  Timmy and I went as a way to end the summer with a bang before school started.  On Assateague there are wild horses roaming about.  They aren’t shy and will come right up to your camp to try and steal food.  They are somewhat aggressive though so we had to make sure to keep our distance.  We spent our days swimming in the ocean, and the evenings cooking dinner by the campfire and eating s’mores (obviously).  We met some cool people, saw a really cute puppy, and had such a good time. If we learned anything from the trip, it’s that A Tinker’s Damn needs to add a dog to the team. Any suggestions for naming it? Rating: 9/10

-Caitlin

30. Pierce my Nose

I always thought nose piercings were cool, but I never thought I would end up getting one.  I didn’t seriously consider getting one until recently when I started to come out of my shell a bit.   I have always been the shy quiet girl that didn’t want any attention to be drawn toward me and in my head a nose piercing would do just that.  I have definitely become less shy and now I often do things or wear things just because they are weird.

Growing up with half of my extended family being very southern and fairly conservative I knew not everyone would like it, but that only made me want to get one even more.  My immediate family has always been all about doing your own thing and expressing yourself however you feel you can so I knew it wouldn’t be an issue with my parents or sisters.  If anything I thought my oldest sister would be mad because I pierced my nose before she did.  I was also scared it would hurt.  It honestly didn’t hurt much at all and it was over in about 10 seconds.  I definitely built it up a lot in my head.  Anyway, I’m really glad I got it because it helps reinforce how weird I am which I strangely love.   9/10

-Caitlin

 

215. Compete in a triathlon… kinda

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Cait, who’s on the UMD Triathlon team, helped me attempt this one. Unfortunately, I underestimated the difficulty of this challenge and didn’t train hard enough. About halfway through the swim, I pulled my hamstring and was unable to finish. Pretty soft, I know, but I’m not going to cross this one off cause I’ll be back for another attempt next year (Timmy might give it a go as well). From the small part that I was able to complete, it was a lot of fun.  My favorite part was that I had a 20 minute talk with a random person I met, who let me use his charger, after I had opted out of the competition. Talking to strangers and meeting new people is always a plus so even though I wasn’t able to cross this one off, I’d still give this experience a 7/10. Also congrats to Cait for finishing 17th in her heat (after running a 10k the previous day).

-Nick