September deadline for completing the goals

The September deadline for completing the goals is the one-year limit Brett Bohlinger faces in carrying out Brett's life list, which is tied to her inheritance. It gives her until September 13 of the following year to complete the entire list and requires her to finish at least one goal by the end of the first month. The date makes the challenge measurable, but its deeper force comes from the way a fixed calendar bears down on decisions that Brett cannot simply schedule or control.

Terms and Conditions

Brad Midar hands Brett the life list as she is about to leave, urging her to keep it in case she changes her mind and warning that the clock is ticking. When she asks what clock he means, he explains the two deadlines: one goal must be completed by the end of that month, and the full list by September 13 the next year. The distinction creates immediate pressure as well as a longer horizon; Brett must begin at once, even though the largest goals involve changes to her working and personal life.

The deadline is a year from the date Brad gives her the terms, not an open-ended invitation to reconsider the list at her own pace. Its countdown also becomes entangled with Brett’s sense of age and romantic security. At thirty-four, she fears that leaving Andrew could mean starting over with no guarantee of finding another partner. The possibility of loss feels especially severe because the time limit makes uncertainty seem like a risk she cannot afford to take.

The Clock in Brett’s Choices

That conflict surfaces when Brett considers whether to remain with Andrew. She recognizes that fear of being alone, rather than a freely chosen vision of the future, helps keep her in the relationship. The list’s deadline does not itself resolve that fear; instead, it sharpens the cost of postponing a decision about what she wants. After she and Andrew make a decision on a Friday night, his colder manner over the weekend leaves Brett uncertain about what their future will be, even as she tries to allow them both time to adjust.

The deadline also turns a daunting work opportunity into a test of commitment. When Brett learns that a substitute teacher may be absent for six weeks, she is tempted to run from the school building. She thinks of goal number twenty and decides that taking on the long-term assignment would give the goal a fair chance. Recalling the instruction to do something every day that scares her, she accepts the position. The calendar therefore presses not only on major life ambitions but on a concrete, immediate choice to stay when escape seems easier.

Progress and Mounting Pressure

By the time March is near, Brett is approaching the midpoint of the year with only five of ten goals completed. She is hopeful about establishing a relationship with her father, but judges four remaining goals—falling in love, having a baby, buying a horse, and getting a beautiful house—to be nearly impossible within the next six and a half months. The horse seems especially absurd to her, while the other aims depend on circumstances she cannot command. Her progress report exposes the tension built into the challenge: a deadline can count completed goals, but it cannot make love, parenthood, or a home arrive on schedule.

The approaching date coincides with changes that unsettle any simple accounting of success. By May 6, Austin comes home from the hospital to Brett’s apartment in Pilsen, weighing four pounds and twelve ounces and dressed in a pink layette from her aunt Catherine. Brett refuses Herbert’s insistence that she and the baby move back to Astor Street, choosing to stay in Pilsen, where the neighbors Selina and Blanca have already welcomed the baby through gifts and attention. This development places the goal of having a baby alongside the practical work of building a home and caring for a premature infant, while the stated September limit is still ahead.

Narrative Significance

The deadline gives the life list its urgency by setting a single, visible date against goals that differ radically in how much Brett can control. Its countdown amplifies her fear of being alone and her anxiety about time, yet it also pushes her toward actions she might otherwise evade, as with the teaching assignment. The contrast between the list’s neat one-year span and the unpredictable course of relationships, work, and family makes the September date more than a scheduling rule: it is the measure against which Brett repeatedly tests both her progress and the limits of planning.