I was reflecting a lot on my first vacation week off in about a year. Taking a year between breaks will get you thinking and reflecting quite a bit, actually. The concept of a bucket list has always been with me, even as a kid. I’ve always been goal oriented. To me, a bucket list is a list of the grandest goals that you would like to achieve in your lifetime.
When I was younger, I would keep lists of shows and concerts I wanted to see, places I wanted to travel, and adventures that I wanted to try, such as skydiving. While I never have gone skydiving, I achieved a genuine rush provided by a hot air balloon ride instead, and that was quite enough for me!
Now that I am—er—not so young, the list is evolving. My bucket list looks more like beaches I’d like to sit on, wines I’d like to sip on, and loved ones I’d like to visit. Upon retirement, my husband and I would like to visit all the baseball parks in North America, sightseeing along the way. I never thought I would get over the life-threatening forms of entertainment, but I think it just comes with age…it’s not super important anymore. Well, that, and I’ve also suffered enough injuries over my lifetime, thank you very much.
The things I enjoy the most now are laughing, exploring new foods and drinks, music, learning new things, and spending time having excellent conversations with amazing people, both family and friends. I love hearing unique points of view. I crave acquiring knowledge to add to my portfolio and muse about how to best solve problems. The problems can be hypothetical or real, but it is fascinating to think and discuss the events in the world and come up with ways to resolve issues.
I believe it is important throughout one’s life to have a bucket list in mind, and the items on it can be reprioritized or changed entirely. The list can be as long or short as you want it to be. It is really satisfying to mark an item off the list as “done” and it is motivating to target the next item on the list to plan out.
It is meaningful to commemorate the achievements too. Our family has a tradition of buying magnets when we visit new places and sticking them onto our refrigerator. It’s fun to hunt around for one when we are traveling and exciting to stick it onto the fridge when we get home, then to stand back and look at all the things we have accomplished, all the sights we have seen, all the places we have visited. And that we’ve done a lot of them together as a family makes it even more special, and those magnets will serve as memories for our kids as well. We also individually bring our own magnets when we travel.
What sights do you want to see? What things do you want to try? What class do you want to take? What is on your bucket list?
The time to start planning is now!
By Dawn D
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