Dora Chen
Dora Chen
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

found this list of things i want. written three years ago. sentiment still stands.

I want to go to McDonalds and order Happy meals until I get every toy in the current collection.

I want to put an entire bag of California cuties in the fridge and eat them all at once in three hours.

I want to drive in an old Volvo convertible down an empty, but not abandoned, road sunk between mountains in Colorado while listening to the whole Jamestown Revival album.

I want to have a conversation with Harper Lee and maybe, at the end, ask her to be best friends or pen pals.

I want to gather everyone I care about into one giant room, have sweet tea and cupcakes, and tell them how much I love them.

I want to build a palace of sheets and blankets, read the entire Lord of the Rings series inside by lamplight, and not wonder if the world misses me.

I want to start an Akon Konvicted era appreciation club.

I want to be a lady, like Kate Middleton.

I want to listen to someone talk about their favorite work of art — the chin in hands elbows on table eyebrows crinkled kind of listen.

I want to wear my Nalgene on a carabiner on my belt loop and look cool as sh*t doing it.

I want this conversation to happen:

“Hey, do you know Dora?”

“Oh, you mean the Times Person of the Year?”

I want this conversation to happen more:

“Hey, do you know Dora?”

“Oh you mean the girl who invented toothpaste that makes OJ taste like heaven in my mouth?”

I want to go to a matinee showing of an awful, wreck of a movie that no one else is watching, buy the Combo #1 at the concessions, and throw popcorn at the screen.

I want to pull an all-nighter, drink 5 cups of coffee at 9 am, gather all my colored pencils, drawing pens, and paper in front of me, and see what happens.

I want to be a world-renowned whistler.

I want to spend a day as queen — not a typical queen, but a queen that wears a crown made of baby’s breath and blackberries and is wheeled around on a red flyer wagon by children too young and unaware to realize it’s illegal.

I want to marry Nick Jonas.

I want to buy a just so sized apartment and fix up the rooms just so.

I want to write a book described by critics as “quotable,” “honest,” “observant” and “mildly offensive.”

)