I started this list when I was 17 and added to it through college. It’s not quite a bucket list. And, while it was a response to people asking me “what do you want to do with your life?” as high school graduation loomed before me, it’s definitely not a list of “what I want to with my life”. Rather, my list was for pushing the boundaries of what I thought possible in life and… well, you’ll just have to read a bunch of my writing around here to get a fuller understanding of what I was and am about 🙂 Because I think and feel too much and just don’t have a simple concept for anything. But yes, my list was about admitting possibilities so I could determine what I truly wanted out of life and consciously choose, rather than subconsciously limiting my life with fear and pessimism and small thinking. You can read more about that concept here.
Now, this should be a simple life list. But as you may be gathering, I have trouble keeping things simple. As such, this life list is supposed to be color coded into different categories. But I haven’t figured out how to do that on this website yet.
But here are the color-coded categories for my life list:
- Regular List Items– Just like putting items on a “bucket list”… think of a possibility and list it.
- Spontaneous List Items– Opportunities I came across in life that I took because I thought, “This is a life list worthy item”. This is one of my favorite categories because it encouraged me to be spontaneous and take chances and to present to life and to have so much fun.
- Retrospective List Items– Another favorite category, this type of item is one which you have already experienced without even thinking to put it on your life list but in retrospect is totally list worthy. This category is awesome because it helped me cultivate gratitude and wonder for life.
Anyhow, I can’t find the list form I am looking for in my files, but I will work on color coding this again and putting the full list (Though I haven’t added to it in years!) here in the future.
And to reiterate some of my general thoughts on my “life list” and “adventure” : I certainly don’t feel that doing an item on my life list will make or break my life… because what truly matters is how I live my life. What matters is the spirit I bring to my life. Do I bring gratitude? Am I present to my life and it’s experiences? Do I bring boldness? Am I open to life… or self-protective?
My life list prompted me to be honest with myself about what I really want in life, by admitting almost everything as a real life possibility. My life list caused me to re-examine what I had already experienced in life that I felt might be list-worthy (Which is a whole lot of things) and to live with a new gratitude for life. My life list caused me to be open to spontaneous opportunities which came up that seemed list worthy. And my life list caused me to have a lot of fun pursuing or taking chances on some quirkier list items (I’ll have to tell you about that one time I wore a sombrero, lol).
Without further ado…
1/3 of My Life List
- Travel around the world/circumnavigate the globe/visit every continent
- Learn to sail a tall ship
- Surf in Hawaii
- See where I was born
- Visit the Marsupial Preserve in New Zealand and hold a wombat
- Eat fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts while watching them being made and wearing hats
- Roller skate at the Galaxy Roller rink in Shallotte, North Carolina
- Snowboard in the summer
- Snowboard through an open door into a building
- Spend the night in a graveyard
- Fight a forest fire/prevent a forest fire
- Nurse someone/something back to health
- Save a life
- Witness a birth
- Hear a sonic boom
- See the sound barrier
- Drive a corvette
- Drive north until I see the Northern Lights
- Ride on a dog sled/drive
- Have hot chocolate and chocolate ice cream
- Live on a volcano
- Find long lost friend
- Watch the sun set over the Atlantic
- Go treasure hunting
- See a wild seal
- See a wild minke whale
- See a wild humpback whale
- Witness a miracle
- See a wild sea turtle
- Get stung by a wild jellyfish
- Kayak with wild dolphins
- Play a Stradivarius violin
- Learn to play the top ten most beautiful violin concertos
- See the white nights of Russia
- Sleep in an igloo/snow fort
- Live/sleep in a castle
- Sleep in a lighthouse
- See a double space shuttle flyby
- Dance from dusk until dawn
- Touch a lemur
- Swim with an alligator
- Dive off a ship into the middle of the ocean
- Wear a real sombrero
- Fly in a cargo plane
- Go to the Kentucky Derby with Aunt Sue
- Witness redemption
- Go to the fairy garden at Winterthur
- Go to see the Green Santa in Maine and get free maple sugar candy and ride the luge
- Start a random dance circle in a random place with random people
- See a real life roadrunner
- Leap boulders in the Garden of the Gods
- See a real life tumble weed
- See a storm in the desert
- Go to Tombstone, AZ and see the O.K. Corral
- See it snow on the ocean
- Sail with my Dad
- Have someone name something after me without paying them
- Get my name in someone’s book
- See a real life flying squirrel
- Eat at the oldest pizzeria in New York City
- Eat a bagel on the Brooklyn Bridge at 3 a.m.
- Eat pizza for every meal for a week
- Go to a restaurant where they play the violin at your table
- Stay at someone’s house and toast all their bread while they are sleeping
- Swim in the ocean at night
- Walk to another state
- Play in the ocean during a tropical storm
- Sleep on a roof
- Foxtrot with Great Uncle Gerald
- Road trip from PA to CA
- Catch my own food and eat it
- Swim rapids
- Launch kayak off a boulder
- Hold baby orphans
- Have a gala
- Ride the trans-Siberian railway
- Join the circus
- Go to the Balkans
- Swing dance in Berlin
- Lead an impromptu artistic rendition of Thriller at my sister’s wedding
- Finish my novel
- Stay in the movie theater all day(but only if it’s raining)
- Build a house
- Meet Miss Shorty and her dog Bear
- Walk the Great Wall of China, camp out on it
- Fly hot air balloon
- Launch hot air balloon
- Meet a celebrity but refuse to recognize their celebrity status
- Hike the Appalachian trail
- Sleep on a small island
- Walk the LOTR trail in costume
- Start a random sing along on a bus, train, or plane like in the movies
- Shoot a cannon
- Race a storm in a kayak
- Spend a night in a museum
- Make a zombie/vampire movie
- Walk around Princeton at 3 a.m.
- Visit the second most haunted house in America the day before Halloween
- Write something so beautiful it makes someone cry
- Go to the Estonia Song festival
- Run behind the bulls
- See two solar eclipses
- Lay in the lawn of the Robot Garden at night and smell the grass and watch the stars
- Visit the world’s largest talking penguin
- See the world’s largest ball of twine
- Go to Dinosaur Land in South Carolina
- Scuba diving
- Go in a submarine, maybe
- Go spelunking
- See the three-legged steer and the world’s largest Prairie Dog at that place in Kansas
- Play street music
- Eat pizookie
- Polka across the streets of New York
- Teach a spontaneous dance lesson in the middle of a sidewalk
- Sleep outside all night in an open field
- Go to a Viennese Ball
- Become Queen of the Mole People
- Jump off a cliff (into water 🙂
- Come up with a thousand theories
- Polar bear swim
- Sign a legitimate waiver releasing liability from moose attacks, grizzly attacks, and avalanches.
- Explore Boston
- Explore Chicago
- Explore NYC
- Explore San Diego
- Explore L.A.
- Explore Philly
- Discuss philosophy in a tree at 3 a.m.
- Go home.
Stay tuned for when I figure out how to color code these so you can see which ones are regular, spontaneous, or retrospective items. And also, for when I find the rest of the list. Also, I will share what I have and haven’t done and some thoughts about the items in light of more life experience.