Life - It's One Big Bucket List
Perhaps it’s just because I’ve spent years of my life now being in the midst of a perpetually chaotic schedule. Or maybe it’s because - as much as I hate to admit it - I thrive on being busy and with having things to do. If there’s anything I’ve learned since graduation, it’s that I don’t have much of an art in taking advantage of free time.
Now, don’t get me wrong - while I’m certainly someone who loves having a lazy day or two on the couch every once in awhile, an empty schedule is far from relaxing to me.
That being said, lately I’ve found a new hobby in researching things to do for the many trips I’m hoping to go on this year. And while many of those trips are still in the process of being finalized, I’ve also been adding a good amount of items to the already lengthy bucket list I’ve been in the process of creating for a couple years now. A bucket list which has genuinely been giving me a lot to look forward to in the remaining years ahead.
It’s also a list that will hopefully soon become one of my many favorite hobbies as I’m given the time to check off individual items now more than ever before.
As I’ve compiled my own bucket list over the years, I know that some of the items on it are outlandish dreams, some of which I’ll probably never do (standing atop Mount Everest’s East Base Camp?), yet they’re dreams that would make my life just that much more interesting and meaningful if only I take the time to cross them off. And whether those experiences are in my own backyard or in an entirely different country altogether, they’re moments in life I’d hopefully never forget.
Because - truly - life is shorter than you think.
So attached you’ll find my own bucket list, some of which you’ll find has already been completed. I hope you use it to add to your own if you already have one or that you use it to help you start one altogether. Being one of my New Year’s resolutions, this year I’ll be methodically crossing off items and posting about my experiences with each.
I hope you’ll keep me accountable.Better yet, I hope you take the time to cross off items on your own bucket lists.Life’s too short to ask, “what if?”
Turn that “what if” into, “What am I going to cross off next?"
Catch a last-minute flight to a random destination
Live in a big city
Have a meaningful conversation with a stranger
Learn to play the guitar or ukulele
Stand on top of a mountain
Have an all-nighter in Las Vegas
Spend time in a monastery
Share your most embarrassing moment with a group of people
Go to Times Square for New Years
Cook every dish in one cookbook
Be in a Youtube video that gets over 25,000 views
Celebrate Holi in India
Attend a presidential inauguration
Stand on the equator
Volunteer abroad
Contact someone with the same exact name as me
Go skydiving
Learn to surf
Float in the Dead Sea
Attend Oktoberfest in Germany
Ride in a hot air balloon
Get involved in a community theater
Close down a bar
Swim with the sharks
Visit every Mediterranean country in Southern Europe
Learn to swing dance
Travel to Africa for a medical mission trip
Eat alone at a restaurant
Order room service
Receive bartending license
Visit the White House
Road trip down the East and West Coasts
Throw tomatoes at La Tomatina
Visit all 7 wonders of the world
Complete a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle
Leave my mark in graffiti
Write a thank you note to a company who’s treated you well
Become fluent in another language
Write a book
Kayak through a bioluminescent bay
Stop at the top of a Mayan temple
Knit a hat
Unplug from all electronics for a week
Celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Go to the Kentucky Derby
See Rocky Horror Show live
Visit Machu Picchu
Hike Mount Kilimanjaro
Get a tattoo
Ride in a gondola in Venice
Pay for a stranger’s meal
Have children
Ride a mechanical bull
Publish a scholarly article
Start a collection of something
Attend a fashion show
Get hypnotized
Go to Santa Con in NYC
See a pyramid in person
Dance at a rave
Take a mud bath
Complete a yearlong memory jar
Watch a meteor shower
Name a star
Relax in a natural hot spring
Travel across the country alone
Participate in a professional photo shoot
Become a barista
Serve food to the homeless at a food kitchen
Go skinny dipping
Toss pizza dough into the air
Crowd surf
Visit Alaska
Dance on a bar
Get a professional full-body massage
Go on a wine-tasting tour
Learn how to meditate
Create a classical music playlist
Sponsor a child’s wish through the Make-A-Wish foundation
Be in a flash mob
Go bungee jumping
Ride a zip line
Become a leader in my field
Join a book club
Graduate from a university
Host a cookie exchange
Find something with a metal detector
Take a self-defense class
Learn how to longboard
Get an acupuncture
Kiss someone under the mistletoe
See a Broadway production
Create my own signature dish
Go to a music festival
Go deep sea fishing
Drink a beer in an Irish pub
Run a half-marathon
Learn all the words to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air opener
Swing from a rope into a lake
Skeet shoot
Participate in a color run
Attend a luau
Visit a holocaust camp
Jump into a pool fully clothed
Drive a luxury sports car
Get snowed into a cabin in the mountains
Bathe an elephant
Leave a 100% tip for a server
Make a Kiva Loan
Do a polar bear plunge
Go ghost hunting
Hike every trail at a state park
Be a member of a live studio audience
Knit a scarf
Read a banned book
Purchase a home on the ocean or a lake
Jump in a trampoline house
Start a garden
Visit my childhood home
Be on a radio show
Be on a jumbotron at a stadium
Go whale watching
Attend the Olympics
Conquer a fear - hold a snake
Climb a Mayan ruin
Participate in running of the bulls
Attend an Ellen show
Entertain somebody living in a nursing home
Swim overtop a coral reef
Attend a rodeo
Be present at a birth
Meet the President
Solve a Rubik's Cube
Receive my pHd
Eat a deep-fried Twinkie
Attend a high school reunion
Run a 7-minute mile
Attend a drag show
Go on a spontaneous road trip
Attend a stand-up comedy show
Travel with a best friend
Visit a psychic
Hike the Pacific-Crest Trail
Plan a romantic picnic for two
Attend a murder mystery dinner
Walk on hot coals
Attend a black tie gala
Hold a lead role in a musical or play
Sing the national anthem at a sporting event
Be an extra in a movie
Backpack across a country (any country)
Stand under a waterfall
Visit the Amazon Rainforest
Watch a space shuttle launch
Take a train across the country
Go to a rave
Stay up all night for tickets
Be a tourist in my own town
Read 100 books in 10 years
Witness a volcano erupt
Make an autumn-time road trip up the east coast to see the trees changing colors
Visit Jerusalem
Camp on the beach
See a ballet
Watch sea turtles hatch and run to the ocean
Ski down the Swiss Alps
Go storm-chasing
Watch the sunrise and sunset in the same day
Apply to be on a reality tv show
Walk on a glacier
Attend a Gay Pride event
Participate in a police ride-along
Go white water rafting down the Colorado River
Visit Antarctica
Fly in a helicopter
Learn how to sail
See Holland when its fields of tulips are in bloom
Hug a redwood
Put change into someone’s expired meter
Save a life
Attend a jazz festival
Send a care package to a soldier
Watch the sun rise across an ocean
Take an art class
Visit Nepal and hike up to the East Everest Base Camp
Go on a six-month trip around the world
Learn conversational spanish
Build a gingerbread house
Stand in a red phone box in England
Send a message in a bottle
Get a tattoo
Spend the night in Martha’s Vineyard
Write a note on the inside of a bathroom stall
Give a keynote speech
Attend a Nascar race
Donate bone marrow
Work in travel nursing
Attend the national Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC
Help someone check off an item on their bucket list
Sing a karaoke duet with a stranger
Go to a nude beach
Get married
Witness a solar eclipse
Have a meaningful conversation with someone of another faith
Be in an acapella group
Arrive at a destination by seaplane
Attend a SuperBowl game
See my favorite band play live
Stay in an overwater bungalow
Eat ice cream right out of the dispenser
Get caught in a dust storm
Write something in wet cement
Have a food fight
Fly in a private jet
Reconnect with an old friend
Ride a dune buggy in a desert
Haggle at an open market
Be in a wedding party
Go cliff diving
Make a house of cards
Purchase a car
Start a blog
Dance with somebody in the rain
Hear the pope speak at the Vatican
Jump into an enormous pile of leaves
Spend an entire weekend in bed watching movies
See the Northern Lights