Before I Die Wall

This place does not exist anymore :(
Wish I had known that before I wandered around hot/​humid D.C. trying to find it.

So cool.

In February of 2011, artist Candy Chang channeled the pain that she felt after the loss of a loved one into the inspiration for a public art project. Dubbed «Before I Die,» the project, involving multiple locations, consists of people writing their hopes and dreams onto a chalkboard wall.
Since Chang started the first wall on an abandoned building in her New Orleans neighborhood, other walls have popped up all around the world in disparate places like London, Johannesburg, Mumbai, and Toronto and American cities such as Chicago, Denver, New York, and even Muncie, Indiana.
In May of this year, a local couple, Sophie Miller and Dan Blah, erected DC’s «Before I Die» wall (apparently with the aid of one of Chang’s toolkits – which helps aspirants to start their own walls). Located at 14^th and Q Streets, NW at a construction site where a future bistro will soon replace a former laundromat, DC’s version was an instant hit.
Locals were immediately drawn to it and filled its lined slots with their ideas. Although much, if not all, of the earliest responses have been washed away by rain storms and people eager to erase and add a thought of their own, the wall at 14^th and Q remains quite full and replete with interesting sentiments.
When I passed the wall most recently, it was bursting with words (much of which had, by now, jumped the lines that were originally stenciled in and have filled virtually every reachable open space).
Most of what caught my eye ranged from inspirational to noble: «Climb Mt. Everest,» «Travel the World,» «Swim the Amazon,» «Publish My Book,» «Have a Baby,» and «Take Care of Orphans in India.» Some were decidedly more lighthearted. One person wrote, «Meet George Washington.» Another wrote, «Save Greece.»
As I watched, a woman wiped the wall to create a spot for herself and tenderly wrote: «I want to marry a special someone.» A hand drawn heart was immediately below it.
Of course, I couldn’t leave without issuing my own thought; but, as I stood there with dusk approaching, no gripping declaration readily came to me. Searching my mind and heart for any preoccupying concern, I drew a blank. Love, fame, benevolence, and heroics all escaped me.
In the end (with my stomach ever involved – as usual), I wrote: «Open my own food truck.» While the thought had crossed my mind before (like one of many mosquitoes on a summer night), it wasn’t something with any present currency; but, it, somehow, surfaced nonetheless.
Maybe, people who encounter these «Before I Die» walls scribble down something that has lingered inside them for a while. Maybe, others like me wrest an idea from seemingly nowhere or stumble upon one in the moment. Whatever the case may be, it is the wall (and writing upon it) that provides tangibility to what is, at first, formless. Perhaps, seeing an ambition in words (and, so publically at that) is the first step toward making it real.