10 Things I Wanted To Do After High School

WATTPAD BRINGS YOU A GUEST POST FROM CAITLYNDUFFY AUTHOR OF GRACE - THE BELIEVER’S DAUGHTER.

When sheltered Grace Mathison runs away from boarding school with her brother, she gets a jump start on grown-up life and has an opportunity to do things she never thought she’d do in her whole life, like work in a tattoo parlor and fall in love with a guy who has a lip ring and regularly breaks laws.

Here’s my own, personal list of things I wanted to happen after high school:

Getting my own apartment— no more roommates! With a dishwasher (still waiting for that part to happen).
Traveling all over the world without waiting for my parents’ permission.
Adopting a fancy miniature breed dog and parading him all over my neighborhood (I guess I’ve kind of done that, although my Chihuahua is overweight, drools, and it’s hard to get him to do much).
Hanging out in slammin’ nightclubs every single night with celebrities and an awesome crew of sexy gay boys (that actually was my life for a few years minus the celebrity part, but it got expensive quickly, and if conflicted a lot with the next item in this list) (Madonna, still living my dream life for me).
Somehow, magically, waking up one day super beautiful and having tons of dudes sweat me, especially the cute guy with the goatee who worked at Starbucks near my campus who used to draw hearts on my cup next to my name (guess what – two days after I graduated from high school I completely forgot about that guy until today).
Getting my eyebrow pierced (OK, maybe not the best idea I ever had, but I wasn’t going to tire of the idea until I did it).
Looking like the coolest girl in Manhattan’s East Village one day, and having some kind of cool job where I made an incredible amount of money and got to flirt all day with cute boys. Please note, I don’t think this job really exists now that I’ve had many, many jobs.
Winning a ton of writing accolades – Newbery medals, Odyssey awards, the Man Booker Prize, the PEN/Faulkner award, and getting on the NY Times Best Seller list. I’m not 18 anymore but this is still on my list! Don’t ask me how I planned to achieve this when I was still counting on partying every night at Santos Party House with my gay boy crew.
Having so much money that I could just walk into Bergdorf Goodman and buy whatever I wanted, as if it were Kmart. This will probably be my very last thought, as I lay on my deathbed. I am a shallow, shallow person. If I were rich I’d even buy obscenely expensive curtain rods.
Getting invited to the Oscars and Cannes and the IFP awards and maybe the Emmys, Golden Globes and SAG Awards, too, and being BFF’s with Kate Winslet and having Rachel Zoe dress me. OK, maybe this one is a little over the top, but I dream big and I dream in details!