23 Things I Want to Do Before I Die

1. Backpack through Europe
   
2. Go to Australia
   
3. Go surfing
   
4. Learn a new language
   
5. Be a mom
   
6. Have really long hair
   
7. Go on a road trip through Egypt
   
8. Climb St. Catherine
   
9. Work for Google
   
10. Write a novel
    
11. Play an instrument
    
12. Go into a sex shop
    
13. Visit 100 countries
    
14. Live alone
    
15. Go on hig
    
16. Camp in the desert
    
17. Take self-defense classes
    
18. Go swimming in the ocean at night
    
19. Go to a strip club
    
20. Audition for reality show
    
21. Go to the movies four times in a row
    
22. Live in another country
    
23. Meet Nawal El Saadawi
    

3ashan Ta3rafo Bas, I'm Not Crazy

My sister met my boyfriend of just barely three months last night. The first thing she said to me afterwards was that she got a good vibe from him. The second thing she said to me was, “howa momken yet2adem emta?”

I wish I could escape all of it.

Trophy Boys, Trophy Wives

My mom keeps asking me if any of my friends are getting engaged, married or having babies. It’s insane to her that my 21 year old girlfriends who just graduated from college are all single. It’s insane to me that she would think that. I’m not being temperamental and I’m not trying to be rebellious or make a statement, but I just don’t understand why in the world everyone thinks that for a woman to find true happiness and success in life she has to find a husband. Like it’s the trophy you get for growing up well. “Congratulations, you’re a smart, sexy, pretty and funny woman! You win a man who will put up with you, fuck you, and let you do the dishes and laundry.” Some prize that is.

I won’t get into the fact that half of all marriages end in divorce, abuse or some form of unhappiness. But I just think there must be some alternative one can look forward to other than a simple domestic life. Perhaps some people are just better off being alone; exploring, traveling, discovering the world. I’m not saying that I’m one of those people. Let me be the first to tell you that I dream of having eight babies. Cooking romantic meals for my husband. Cleaning up after my kids. Driving them to soccer practice. But I just wish that I could feel that this really is what I want for myself. Not what society is enforcing me to have.

I usually tend to talk about how much I hate society versus my own individual wants and thoughts. And I know that most of that talk is overused and overrated. But it’s frustrating for me that ever since my sister got married and I have been having people I barely know tell me how much they can’t wait for my night as well or how they’re dreaming of the day they come visit my house with my husband. LIKE I CAN’T GET A HOUSE MYSELF!

My sister told me today that if a woman is 25 and single, her hopes for ever falling in love and living happily (married) ever after start to diminish. Apparently that leaves me three and a half years find that perfect man (or keep the current one around long enough), get that perfectly romantic proposal, anxiously introduce him to my parents, save up a shitload of money or all that a marriage entails, and go through the great ordeal of planning a wedding. Should I feel like I’m running out of time?