I don’t recall ever hearing the term “bucket list” until the movie of the same name came out in 2007. Although I’ve never seen the movie, I actually love the premise.
Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.
Those two men, of course, are Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I’m not too crazy about Jack but going on a road trip with Morgan is probably something I could put on a bucket list.
And there’s that term again. Bucket List.
Do we really need one? It’s not a new theme for me.Â
When we knew we’d be moving from North Carolina, I made a bucket list of all the things I wanted to do and see before we moved. Out of the thirteen things on the list, we ended up doing five of them, not because we ran out of time but because we just didn’t do it.
Some time later, I participated in a vlog prompt asking me to talk about my life list. I rambled on for almost three minutes as to why I didn’t have a life list and ended up saying this:
The reality is that if I really had a life list, it would end up like all the other lists in my life: half-done and a constant reminder of what I still need to do.​
How lame is that? I didn’t want to create a list because I knew I’d never cross anything off of it. So a few months later, I approached the idea of a bucket list, yet again. This time, I called upon a quote I had heard from my older brother decades ago.
So I set about making a wild and crazy list of 50 things that maybe I would actually like to do before I kicked the bucket. I can’t say that I’ve made a dent in the list but at least I have a list.
And then, the time came to make one more list. This one was inspired by Bufferin Buffered Aspirin, something that I hadn’t thought about in decades! They asked me to not only create a bucket list but CROSS SOMETHING OFF OF IT.
I took two approaches to this request.
1. I decided to cross something off of my list of 50 things that I had already put out there for public consumption. And here it is:
LEARN TO PLAY A UKELELE!
Ah, but the picture doesn’t prove anything, does it? I could have simply grabbed a ukelele, taken a nice picture, and “said” that I had learned to play. But I actually have video proof.
(Please make sure you have the volume turned WAY UP for this heart-stopping rendition of Clementine).
So we all took turns coming up with things we’d like to do as a family. And here they are:
- Visit Switzerland. (Sean has a friend with a place in Zurich so what are we waiting for?)
- Run a 5k race. (Yup. I’ll be doing this on Sunday, March 16th. But I’m not sure how much “running” will be going on.)
- Learn to ice skate. (Something Evan wants to do and I could certainly use a refresher.)
- Cruise to Antarctica. (Yes, I’m still hung up on this idea.)
- Restore a classic car. (Not my dream but I’m hoping my husband means we can restore a 1976 AMC Pacer.)
- Go four-wheeling OFFROAD. (We have a JEEP Wrangler that can drive over anything and yet we have yet to leave the pavement.)
- Learn to ski/snowboard. (Directly inspired by the Olympics. I’m happy to sit in the lodge while the boys do this.)
- Make a mosaic. (I love mosaics and my husband bought me all the supplies to do one years ago. Might be time to actually do it.)
- Visit Paris, France. (I’ve been but Evan wants to go and who couldn’t use a second trip to Paris?)
- Eat the “Kitchen Sink” at Disney. (This is literally a gigantic sundae served in a kitchen sink and would certainly take all of us to eat it!)
I think most of them are doable, right? Yeah, the Nallys don’t generally dream small. And they’re dreams. They shouldn’t be small. The only obstacles are time, money, and the get-up-and-go. I can find the time and I’m working on the money.
Now, it’s time for you to chime in and tell me just one thing you’d put on our bucket list. Or even better, tell me something you HAD on your list that you’ve finally done! I’m hoping you can top my ukelele performance.
