Bucket List

I went to a party last night at the neighbor’s (very fun, btw) and my friend Chris told a story about zip lining in Montana with her high school friends on a girls’ weekend trip. She was hilarious about this story because she was so petrified of the height of the line and the safety (or her perceived lack thereof) in the “checks” on the equipment that was nonchalantly and quickly performed by college guys who seemed a little too blasé about the whole thing.

Most of us standing around listening were envious of the experience, but she said she would have been much happier sitting at the bottom of the run in an Adirondak chair sipping a cold beer, cheering on the others. “The only good thing about doing it,” she said, “is that I’ve done it now. Check.” “It wasn’t on my bucket list, but now it’s checked off my life list, nonetheless.”

I’m retelling this now because I confessed to the crowd that I don’t have a bucket list. One friend said, “Why would you? You don’t need a bucket list when you get everything you want and do everything you want to do.” Everyone laughed, including me. But in my rebuttal, feeling a little stung by the comment, I said, “I’ve never been to the pyramids. I’ve never been to Greece. I’ve never seen Buckingham Palace. I’d like to do all those things. AND for the things that I have done, I’d now like to do them over with my kids.”

Today, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about a bucket list—what it is and what it means to have one or not have one and what mine should include.
In case you don’t know the definition or origin of a bucket list, it’s a list of goals or achievements that you hope/plan to do before you die. The idea being that if you have a plan, your life has purpose. Without a bucket list, it’s easy to get caught up in the mundane or the flurry of daily activity—always concentrating on the minutia and never seeing the big picture—a compass on the journey of life.

I haven’t come up with my lifetime bucket list (I only started seriously thinking about today), but I did come up with a few things that I had on a “resolutions” list from the start of this year. It’s not as comprehensive as I think a bucket list should be, but it’s a start. I posted it below. If you want help on coming up with one of your own try this site or think about Mondo Beyondo, a six week on-line discussion of life goals and achieving your dreams, no matter how crazy they might be.

This year, I hope to:
Begin a blog (again)
Write regularly on said blog
Enter the Midsummer Writing Contest again
Win Midsummer Writing Contest again
Continue my memoir project
Sleep at least 7 hours a night
Exercise each day
Meditate in the morning
Give up M&Ms
Be a better friend
Have a party
Ride a roller coaster or two
Have lunch out more often
Do yoga more often
Visit Robin
Take a cool trip with my family
Get back to Hilton Head
Learn to be more patient
Forgive a little more than I do