Before I Die by Nikki Ash

Things I want to do before I die:
Go to a club
Get drunk
Kiss a stranger
Go on a mission trip

I’m drowning. Trapped beneath my mother’s expectations. Suffocated by my religious upbringing.
My life has been full of well-crafted decisions—none of them made by me.
On the outside I play by the rules, but on the inside… I have dreams. A list. A tattered scrap of paper tucked away from the world, only I know about.
Some items were easy to check off. Others, though, will require me to take a huge leap out of my comfort zone.
One night changes everything. While at the club for my birthday, so I could check off another item on my list, I did something I never imagined I would have the guts to do: I got drunk and kissed a stranger.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how that one kiss would change the course of my life, making me realize life is more than a list to be checked off. It’s about living in the moment so you don’t miss the ones not on the list—the ones you didn’t even know you wanted.