Depending on where you are in life right now, it might feel like there are endless days ahead of you. Or perhaps you are slightly more seasoned, like I am, with mailings from AARP and Medicare creeping into my inbox and mailbox on a regular basis. Whatever your age, it can be hard to think about what you’d like to accomplish before your time on Earth comes to an end. I have a short list of things I’d like to do while I’m still young enough to enjoy doing them. Then there’s a few aspirational goals that might take more time, energy, and dedication than I have right now, but I’m hopeful. Most of these ideas are floating around in my head in a virtual to-do list. Sometimes my invisible goals change, based on the people I meet and the interesting things they’ve done.
It’s important to write things down and not just let them flutter around in your head where they can get lost or forgotten. There’s something about putting words to paper (or keyboard to Word document) that makes a goal or task real. I’ve often heard, “if it’s not written down, it doesn’t get done,” which is why I was excited about a book called “Before I Die” my friend Michelle showed me a few months back. On its cover is a photo of a black chalkboard wall with the words “Before I die I want to…” stenciled in line after line on the wall. Next to these words, written in colorful chalk, are the goals and dreams of the people that walk by the wall each day and take a minute to share what really matters to each of them. Some are funny, some are sad, some seem like enormous goals, and some are easy to achieve: “sing for millions of people,” “live off the grid,” “plant a tree,” “be completely myself,” “hold her one more time.”
Candy Chang, a New Orleans artist, started this project after losing someone she loved in 2009. Every day she would look at an abandoned house across the street from where she lived, boarded up with plywood. With the help of some friends, she painted a section black and stenciled those words across it, leaving chalk out on the sidewalk in a bucket, not knowing what to expect. The next day, the wall was entirely filled with her neighbors’ hopes and dreams. “The neglected space became a constructive one,” she shares in a TED talk from 2012. She would clean off the wall on a regular basis, and people would continue to write out what was important for them to do before they died.
“Two of the most valuable things we have are time, and our relationships with other people,” Chang says. “In our age of increasing distractions, it’s more important than ever to find ways to maintain perspective, and remember that life is brief and tender. Death is something that we’re often discouraged to talk about, or even think about, but I’ve realized that preparing for death is one of the most empowering things you can do. Thinking about death clarifies your life.”
The project has grown and spread around the globe and in many languages, with communities creating their own boards on empty walls or free-standing structures. My friend Michelle, with her book and boundless enthusiasm, has convinced me that before either of us die, this is a project we need to do right here in Prescott. So we are doing it.
The three-sided “Before I Die” board is taking up a chunk of our garage right now and will make its debut at the Chalk It Up! Prescott festival this April 20-21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days in the parking lot of the new City Hall location, 201 N. Montezuma. At the festival, you’ll get to see professional and amateur artists creating amazing works of art with chalk, all benefitting the Launch Pad Teen Center. And if you visit their Facebook page, you can sign up to color your own square for free at the festival.
And somewhere in that space, you’ll find our “Before I Die” chalkboard. Grab a piece of chalk, find a blank space on the wall and scribble down what’s important to you. You can ask one of our volunteers what’s on their bucket list or talk to Michelle and find out why this project means so much to her. You might even discover that some of your neighbors share the same goals you do, or pick up a few new ones to aspire to in the months and years ahead.