The Reverse Bucket List.

This idea's from Chimerikal (a great gal and a great blog! Check her out). Almost any blog you go to is going to have a bucket list, right? Everyone has things that they want to do in order to have their ideal life and feel like they've made their lives worth it. But the thing is, our lives already are worth it. What if we counted all the great things we have done, instead of everything we still want? After I wrote this list, I just felt fantastic...I'm still young and I've done so many things and had so many opportunities. So this is my reverse bucket list: the things I've already been lucky enough to experience.

1. Go whitewater rafting


2. Ride horses.


3. Touch a stingray.


4. Zipline in Mexico.


5. See the sunset.


6. Swim in one of the Great Lakes


7. Go skiing


8. Go canoeing


9. Sleep in a treehouse.


10. Swim in the ocean.


11. Surf in California


12. Go skinny dipping


13. Fly first class.


14. Go paintballing


15. Visit the Georgia Aquarium


16. Visit the Shedd Aquarium


17. Visit New York City


18. Visit Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, & Ukraine)


19. See a Broadway Show in New York


20. See the house where my grandmother and great-grandmother lived (Hamburg, Germany)


21. Go on a road trip through National Parks


22. Eat cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory.


23. Visit all the North American countries


24. Visit the Caribbean


25. Swim with sharks.


26. Sleep on the beach.


27. Hold a snake.


28. Sleep in a log cabin.


29. Pull an all-nighter.


30. Go to Hawaii


31. Make a speech in front of three hundred people.


32. Visit Sea World


33. Be the President of something (Environmental Club & Debate Club)


34. Take a double-decker bus tour


35. Visit the Statue of Liberty


36. Go to a cheese market in France.


37. Study my ancestors.


38. Go to a circus.


39. Eat Chicago-style pizza.


40. Visit the place where Count of Monte Cristo is set (Marseille, France, Chateau d'If)


41. Eat Chicago-style popcorn.


42. Visit a concentration camp (Bergen-Belsen)


43. Go to a concert outdoors (Rascal Flatts, Zac Brown Band, Little Big Town)


44. Learn to play an instrument


45. Make ice cream (peach).


46. Visit a pickle factory.


47. Get on the Honor Roll.


48. Play a sport.


49. Eat gelato.


50. Run a 5K.


51. Run a 10K.


52. Learn to surf.


53. Scuba dive.


54. Go on a cruise.


55. Go out for a fancy dinner--and order dessert.


56. Learn conversational French.


57. Sing in a choir.


58. Go snorkeling.


59. Go hiking.


60. Go rock climbing.


61. Go jetskiing.


62. See the Northern Lights (over the Atlantic Ocean & Minnesota)


63. Visit Niagara Falls.


64. Buy something using a foreign language.


65. Vacation in Cancun.


66. Take a yoga class.


67. Take a spinning class.


68. Take a zumba class.


69. Visit the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, DC.


70. See the White House


71. Ride in a police car (it was for charity, guys!)


72. Visit Chicago.


73. Climb up the Empire State Building


74. See Mount Rushmore


75. Visit Disney World


76. Learn to paint.


77. Learn to sew.


78. Watch a silent film.


79. Donate.


80. Go sailing.


81. Visit a castle.


82. Visit an aquarium.


83. Swim with dolphins.


84. Visit a zoo.


85. Be kind to a stranger.


86. Give a big tip.


87. Fall in love.

What would be on your reverse bucket list? 

 

Related posts you might like:

• Moving Out: Thoughts on Leaving My Childhood Home


• Dreaming of...Iceland


• Dreaming of...Costa Rica

P.S. For more, like CMS on Facebook or follow me on Twitter or Bloglovin'

Catching My Eye 04.

This week: I worked, scooping lots of ice cream ♥ Played lots of games with friends ♥ swam & laid out on the beach ♥ ran my longest run in awhile (4.5 mi) ♥

Now for the best of the interwebs:

♥Obama likes Snocones.

♥Shannon at The Feminist Mystique has a series on different women (and some men) and their choices to change, keep, or hypenate their last names upon getting married.

♥Bill Nye the Science Guy's house is energy efficient with solar panels and green windows.

♥95% of people wash their hands wrong, are you one of them?

♥Sarah Von from Yes and Yes shares a new idea for your bucket list: write a letter to an inmate.

♥This explanation of the right & left sides of your brain.



♥The reasons I love Anthropologie: These Victorian style whale bookends, this beautiful pale pink watch, and this bust of a giraffe that I want hanging on my wall.

♥You might have missed: fresh pair of eyes [a playlist] ♥ Weekly Wishes #3 ♥ celtic rock [a playlist]

♥Follow me on Twitter

♥Follow me on BlogLovin'

June Book Challenge

In June, (and I realize I'm already five days behind) I am going to read ten books! At least that's my goal. I'm not sure how many book I usually read a month but it's probably close to this in the summer. Then, in July, I'd like to increase that goal. Here are a couple books that I can't wait to read!



 

1. Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.

3. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale. Precocious, self-conscious and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno, born and raised in a habitat at the local zoo, falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore goes beyond satire by showing us not what it means, but what it feels like be human -- to love and lose, learn, aspire, grasp, and, in the end, to fail.

4. Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman. In this sumptuous offering, one of our premier storytellers provides a feast for fiction aficionados, traveling around the world and examining the lives and nuances of locales.

5. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. A guy walks into a bar car and...From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

6. The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell. Rose Baker seals men’s fates. With a few strokes of the keys that sit before her, she can send a person away for life in prison. A typist in a New York City Police Department precinct, Rose is like a high priestess. Confessions are her job.

[summaries excerpted from GoodReads.com]