72. Throw an enormous house party

I can recall having done this on two occasions.

1)
During high school particularly, I had many house parties when my parents weren't home. But! For my 17th birthday, for some reason I wanted to invite everybody. I had just returned home from boarding school, having transferred, and I had kept strong connections with my friends from public school at home, and my friends from boarding school who were from all over. I even began to meet people at my new private school (since my birthday is in October). I invited about 70 people to my birthday, 50 of whom actually showed up.

Really I just wanted to dance. That's something that usually doesn't catch on at a lot of house parties now a days. People just jump around, or drink. I rolled up the rug in my kitchen, and created a dance floor ambiance; and it worked because everyone was dancing and enjoying themselves. People from all facets of my life showed up and met each other. That year I thought that I was the glue that kept my friends together, and now a lot of us don't talk anymore. It's okay though because we made a lot of good memories together. Except for the Russians I didn't know that showed up and tried to steal from me and my old buddy Hilary ended up kicking them out for me. People were over so much that summer that they all developed a lot of respect for me and my house. I didn't really have to do much unless there were strangers there.

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2)
The second time was last summer at the "end of the summer staff party" that my brother and I hosted for the co-counselors we work with at camp. That was great, because I felt like I became extremely close with every counselor last year. The only crappy part was, I told my brother from the beginning that I would not take any responsibility for the party. Everyone showed up at 4p for the BBQ and hanging out (all of which I organized), and no one fell asleep until around 2a... my brother passed out at 11p and left me to deal with cleaning up and noise control. I threw a book at him on his head and he didn't budge. Throwing stuff at him without any consequences was fun... him laying all responsibility on me when all I wanted to do was go to bed, not fun.

Maybe these parties weren't enormous in retrospect... but I don't imagine I will be a big party thrower when I have my own house, and considering there was limited floor space, I'm just gonna go ahead and consider this goal checked.

2. Teach Sunday School

I attended Sunday School classes after and during church on Sundays from when I was around 4 years-old until I was in high school. In high school I found myself gathering so much information from my religious studies in school and at church camp that I wasn't learning anything in classes on Sundays. At times, I would even be correcting the teacher because he or she had obviously not taken as much interest in the topic as I had. Since I was in boarding school for my second year of high school, I barely attended church unless I was home. The closest Orthodox Church to Brewster Academy was about an hour away at least. When I returned home to finish high school while living with my parents, I took full advantage of the simple pleasures of having a car, few rules, and a loose schedule. I anticipated becoming involved with my Sunday school by teaching kids who could take in the information that I had to offer, and help children grow in their faith. I was only 16, but I was ready to make a difference. I asked the head of the school if I could teach, and much to my dismay, I was placed in the nursery room as an assistant teacher. It makes sense now that I'm thinking back on it, but at the time I felt that I was being highly underestimated. For two years I took attendance, made jokes that the parents thought were funny but that the kids did not understand, and I taught the kids that we love a dude named Jesus, whose mom was Mary, and dad was God, and he's awesome because he died for us.
When I graduated high school and left the Sunday school, I went to church after a night of partying, received an icon and gift in front of the entire congregation, and managed to not stumble my way through the aisle. One of my kids gave me a candle, and another gave a gift card. I got some scented soap, drawings, and a lot of thank you cards.

When I left, half of the kids called me "Miss," "Teacher" or "Miss Teacher" because they could not say my name, and I was tired of making them try.
It wasn't time wasted, but it did feel a little bit silly teaching 4 and 5 year olds lessons for an hour about stuff that are far too complicated to understand at that age.
At least now they know what Christmas and Pascha are for, and who that Jesus dude is.