The Bucket List
Nearly everyone has a bucket list.  But too few people keep a list of amazing feats and experiences that have already occurred.  I’m thankful for the fun I’ve had, and I’m focused on creating more!  Here are my lists, respectively:

Adventures I’ve Already Had

  • Study abroad (Tokyo, Summer 2004; USA/Japan/Europe, Spring 2005)
  • Run a marathon (Chicago, October 2004)
  • Give a graduation speech (Eureka, May 2007)
  • Sing for the Pope at the Vatican (Spring 2005)
  • See the Sistine Chapel (Spring 2005)
  • Be a contestant on a game show (Bozo Show, 1992; City Chase - Hong Kong 2007)
  • Join a sports team on a whim (Collegiate swim and cheerleading teams)
  • Work as an editor (Eureka College Pegasus, 2006-2007)
  • See Donald Trump in New York (Fall 2004)
  • Work as a camp counselor (Camp Tuckabatchee!)
  • Stand up as a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding (thanks for the honor Katie, Jayne, Anna, Abbi, Lauren, Rosy and Kim!)
  • Give a great toast (or cheer) at a friend’s wedding (Anna and Jeff Palmer, May 2007)
  • Take a road trip (Spring Break 2007)
  • Volunteer with Americorps (Habitat for Humanity, Summer 2006)
  • Save someone’s life (Maple Hill Pool!)
  • Participate in an alternative spring break trip (Habitat trip to College Station, 2006)
  • Visit Pearl Harbor where WWII started (for the USA, anyway) and Hiroshima, Japan where it ended (Summer 2004)
  • Catch the bride’s bouquet (I am totally forgetting whose wedding this was…oops)
  • Sleep in a canoe (Girl Scout Camp)
  • Ride a mechanical bull
  • Dress up as a geisha (2006)
  • Overcome my fear of roller coasters (Six Flags, 1998!)
  • Have my photography displayed in a gallery (Portland, Maine and Bloomington, IL)
  • Win a contest (too many wins to count! :))
  • Study a subject in school that is of no use to a future career (Sociology of Deviance, also my favorite class as an undergrad)
  • Plant a tree (Spring 2005)
  • Visit the Van Gough Museum in Amsterdam (Spring 2005)
  • Be serenaded (2002)
  • Count shooting stars
  • Attend a Japanese tea ceremony (Summer 2004, Spring 2005)
  • Fall in love (a few times!)
  • Taste a buffalo burger (and whale, and raw horse meat! Spring 2005)
  • Make homemade popsicles (frequently!)
  • Graduate from college (May 2007 - DEVILS FOREVER!)
  • Eat with chopsticks in Chinatown (also frequently!)
  • Appear on national television (CNN 2005)
  • Appear on local television (NBC 2001)
  • Interview someone of importance (Mayor of Peoria, Spring 2007)
  • Wear bright red lipstick (Chanel. Done and done.)
  • Go to a nude beach (First time was in Germany)
  • Site a celebrity or two
  • Donate to a charity I believe in
  • Live abroad for at least a year (Hello, Hong Kong!)
  • Watch the sun set over Machu Picchu (July 2009)
  • Win a game of Trivial Pursuit
  • Compete in a triathlon (March 2009)
  • Attend a taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show (October 2008)
  • See the ancient Khmer capital of Angkor Wat in Cambodia (March 2008)
  • See a fashion show (Thailand, September 2007)
  • Attend a presidential press conference (Chicago, November 2008 - Obama’s acceptance speech)
  • Hear the bells of Notre Dame (Paris, April 2008)
  • Climb a mountain (multiple times - one of my favorite things to do!)
  • Go to a major league soccer match (July 2009 US men’s team vs. Honduras and multiple Fire games)
  • Visit the Louvre (Paris, April 2008 - multiple times!)
  • Learn to make a mosaic (Hong Kong, 2008)
  • Start my own business (2009)
  • See a moose in Maine - as well as eat a whoopie pie (100 Mile Wilderness, 2011)
  • Hike 2,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail (2011)
  • Earn a cool nickname (2011)
  • Swim with turtles (Barbados, 2011)

Adventures to Come

  • Help with an archeological/anthropological expedition
  • Watch the sumo wrestling championships in Japan
  • Campaign for a presidential candidate
  • Visit the Galapagos Islands and brush up on Darwin beforehand
  • Take a train ride on the Orient Express/Trans Siberian Railroad
  • See the Northern Lights
  • Watch the Olympic Games live and in-person
  • Watch the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Films
  • Read the Modern Library Association’s 100 Greatest Books
  • Join the Peace Corps when I retire
  • Take a cooking class
  • Take a knife skills class so I am a better cook
  • Kayak in the Florida Keys
  • Bicycle across the USA for charity
  • Raise at least a million dollars for charity
  • See the gigantic carved heads of Easter Island
  • Learn to downhill ski gracefully
  • Go on a safari
  • Ride an elephant in India
  • Ride a camel in Egypt
  • Learn to surf
  • Make a pilgrimage to Mt. Kailas in Tibet
  • Dine at a five-star restaurant in Paris, France
  • Join a book club
  • Celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans
  • Vote in every election for which I’m eligible (so far, so good)
  • Become fluent in a second language
  • See Antarctica and all those adorable Emperor Penguins from a cruise ship
  • Visit all seven continents
  • Write a children’s book, even if it’s just for my own child someday
  • Kiss the Blarney Stone while visiting the land of my ancestors
  • Travel with no destination
  • Take another regional road trip
  • Tour the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Vermont and eat a Vermonster, too!
  • Stay overnight at the White House
  • Trek along the Silk Road
  • Swing on a trapeze
  • Visit the Taj Mahal
  • Spend Bastille Day in Paris
  • Cut down my own Christmas Tree
  • Wear a sari
  • Make the finals in a dance marathon
  • Ride in a century (a 100 mile bike ride)
  • Ride in a hot air balloon
  • Visit all 50 states
  • Read the complete works of Jane Austen
  • Master my tennis serve
  • Sponsor a child to go to summer camp
  • Blow glass
  • Be a backup dancer for Tina Turner
  • Take tap dancing lessons (because I loved it so much as a child)
  • Go to a clambake
  • Catch the next sighting of Haley’s Comet in 2062
  • Run for public office
  • Work as an international correspondent
  • Stay in a yurt in Mongolia
  • Host a foreign exchange student
  • Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
  • Become a PADI certified scuba diver
  • Complete a New York Times crossword puzzle
  • Visit every Smithsonian museum (I’m so close!)
  • Take a vacation with my sister
  • Work as an extra in a movie
  • Swim in the lagoons of the Maldives
  • Start a tradition of celebrating half birthdays
  • Be brave enough to complete a polar bear swim on New Year’s Day
  • Produce a documentary for public television
  • Dress up as Wonder Woman next Halloween
  • Watch the new films at Sundance
  • Live in a university town (again)
  • Bike through Italy’s wine country
  • Try acupuncture
  • Initiate a program of social reform
  • Swim through an underwater grotto
  • Reply to children’s letters to Santa Claus
  • Send a message in a bottle
  • Make it a tradition to serve Thanksgiving Dinner at a homeless shelter
  • Make homemade truffles
  • Bike Iowa’s border-to-border Ragbrai
  • Assist in the birth of a baby
  • Read all the Harry Potter books
  • Re-read all the Roald Dahl books to my own children someday
  • Attend the inauguration of the first woman president (again, someday)
  • Visit the Prato
  • Have season tickets to the symphony, ballet or opera
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@meglaz

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"The most interesting things happen when you get off the predictable path, when you challenge assumptions, and when you give yourself permission to see the world as opportunity rich and full of possibility."
-- Tina Seelig

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