I Am Excited About My Future And This President Won’t Change That: A List

We have a new president-elect and I will be honest, I am scared. My immediate reaction is to hide for the next four years. But the thing is that my life — and yours, dear reader — will hopefully be much longer than the next four years. And while hope is not a strategy for creating change, sometimes we aren’t always trying to strategize, sometimes we’re just trying to survive. Our future president may try and succeed to take away a lot of my rights, but he cannot take away my future. I am magical and my future is bright. You are magical and your future is bright. We’re going to struggle and fight, and we shouldn’t have to, but we will. And our futures will remain bright because of our work. I think that’s beautiful. I’m excited about my future. I’m a little nervous also, but I’m more excited than nervous, because just as the seasons change, our president will as well. Things may not get better under him, in fact, they may get worse. But one day, and maybe even some days in the next four years, there will be beauty and excitement in our lives.  

So! Here’s a list of 41 things that make me so fucking excited because my future is big and bright and beautiful and I can’t wait.

  1. Getting a Ph.D. and writing a book no one will read
  2. Wearing academic regalia and taking selfies in the bathroom
  3. Volunteering with the Girl Scouts
  4. My Christmas tree getting tackier and tackier every year
  5. Making out with cuties in the grass
  6. Watching the rain out my windows and pretending I’m in a music video
  7. Being middle-aged and gossiping on the porch with QTPOC friends
  8. Having a million foster children
  9. Getting sweaty at hundreds of queer dance parties
  10. Seasons changing
  11. Planting fruit trees and growing vegetables in my front yard to share with my neighbors
  12. Staying up too late to party at Klub Deer year after year after year after year
  13. Perfecting the dad joke
  14. Leaving my Diva Cup and dildos in the dish drying rack
  15. My cats growing up and actually using the litter box (debatable)
  16. Posing with every statue on the University of Texas at Austin’s campus
  17. Being in someone’s gay wedding and maybe one day having one of my own (???)
  18. Forgetting about Peeps and then remembering them when Easter comes around
  19. Sleeping outdoors
  20. Buying new stationary
  21. Decorating my jean jackets with pins and patches
  22. Filling up a home with books and plants and candles and love
  23. Actually reading all the books that I buy
  24. One day visiting Obama’s Presidential Library
  25. Going to small humans’ softball games and dance recitals
  26. Queer sex
  27. Listening to Prairie Home Companion
  28. Road trips
  29. Building my collection of baseball caps
  30. Friday nights in with face masks and The Crown
  31. Painting my nails black
  32. Marathoning The Lord of the Rings yearly
  33. Blue Ivy Carter’s 16th birthday
  34. Swimming in the nude
  35. Meeting Joe Biden one day
  36. The first woman president
  37. The first woman of color president
  38. The first trans president
  39. The first non-binary president
  40. The first trans woman of color president
  41. Having a themed BBQ in 4 years to celebrate the end of this presidency
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Ari

Ari is a 20-something artist and educator. They are a mom to two cats, they love domesticity, ritual, and porch time. They have studied, loved, and learned in CT, Greensboro, NC, and ATX.

Ari has written 330 articles for us.

35 Comments

  2. Why is queer sex and nude swimming not in the top ten? Perfecting dad jokes should be number two! I will make my own list. It will make me more positive. What an amazing list :)

    My list of things to look forward to and be excited about.

    1. I will finish my degree. 2. Getting a cat or two. Maybe a dog also. 3. New scientific discoveries! 4.Pot might be legal in Texas. 5. Finally being able to just be myself without fear one day.

  8. This is exactly what I needed! I’m finishing my MA next semester and some days I feel hopeful and excited, but other times I’m not sure. Thanks, Alaina!

  9. These are great! Here is my simple one:

    BY THE TIME TRUMP LEAVES OFFICE

    I will finally have mastered the use of my Diva cup

    Please, Straddlers, hold me accountable for this goal <3

    • you’ll get there! i hated it when i first tried to use it and was like what is this awful thing i have spent money on, but once i figured it out, it made life so much easier. (i still want some thinx, tho.)

    • it takes way more time than you think it will to work it out??? i remember like the second time i tried to use it trying to shove it in like a second before i was about to be late somewhere and it was a disaster. it’s definitely something you’ve got to be prepared to just hang out in the bathroom and use for like…a while in the early days lol

    • You may be better off with a different brand and/or size. Says someone who used a diva cup until a mouse ate it and then switched brands/sizes and was much more pleased with the second brand. Better fit, better comfort = fewer mishaps. The proliferation of options has been impressive since 2004.

      Also happy to offer moral support.

  13. Oh dear Goddess, I needed this. Thank you so much, Alaina! This election has been bringing up all sorts of childhood trauma, and I needed something to nudge me back into the present/future.

  15. oh man it’s so easy to forget the good things but this list is one of the good things

    (i’m really gonna mail you those memes i made some day, i really really am)

  16. I seriously doubt I’m every going to achieve #23 on your list because I have over 200 books on my shelf and goddammit I KEEP BUYING MORE (mostly because people keep writing them! Damn you, writers!).

  17. So I teared up during the intro but it was number 27 that really got me. Thank you, you bright and magical human.

    • I 100% needed this list in my life. I’ve just been repeating to myself that one day I will live in a house and have money for rent and make a home with my wife where we grow idk, shit like chives and mint on our windowsill. We’ll have a lil cat and i’ll also write a book no one will read and have an email signature that is SO LONG because of all of my accomplishments it will look gross. No stupid ass cheeto man can take that from me.

  21. ALL OF THESE THINGS, ESPECIALLY 36-41. I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU! thank you for giving us things and hope to hold on to!

  23. I’m also a grad student at UT! I’d totally be into randomly meeting up at statues to take selfies.

  24. I also marathon Lord of the Rings every year! Well, every other year. Every other OTHER year is Harry Potter, even though the movies always disappoint me. This winter, it’s on.

    I am looking forward to…
    – Getting gay-married to my love next year. <3
    – All the dogs I will pet.
    – Watching the small ones in my family grow up.
    – How this disasterous political climate will hopefully bring us all closer together, make the gay bars about community again, strengthen ties between oppressed groups, and bring the bigots into the sunlight where they can burn like the vampires they are. :) #StrongerTogether

  25. I thought I didn’t like my new house but now the prospects of growing vegetables only I will notice in the yard and leaving dildos in the dish drainer have made me see it with new eyes.

  26. Beautiful.

    My list includes
    – seeing if the deer resistant tulip bulbs I planted last month are also squirrel resistant
    – the two pots of daffodil bulbs currently wrapped I paper at the back of my fridge (they should be ready to bloom in late Feb/ early March, just when I’ve given up on spring ever coming.
    – crafts with neices and nephews
    – I had a great job interview yesterday!!!!!!!

  27. I love you and this. Happy things are making me cry lately, and this did it. We shouldn’t have to but we will. Looking forward to a brighter future with you all one day <3

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