If you carry a conversation with me for longer than twenty
minutes, you will probably very quickly learn two things about me. First, I’m a
deeply passionate person. When I truly love something or care about something,
I dive head first, 100% into it. When I say I have a passion for traveling and
culture, I mean the perfect life to me is to be a nomad and never have a
permanent home. When I say I love maps, I mean the past 3 years of my life you
haven’t been able to see my bedroom walls because there were too many maps on
them. And when I tell you I love to snowboard, I mean I actually cried when I
sprained my ankle during the biggest snowstorm of the year and realized I
wouldn’t be able to ride at all before leaving for Morocco. My mother has
always told me I don’t do anything halfway. If I decide I want to do something,
it’s all or nothing. This is what I mean when I say I’m a passionate person.
The second thing you will likely realize about me is that
I’m about as stubborn as a mule. If I want to do something, nothing will stop
me, and in return, if I don’t want to do something, you really better let it
go, because I’m not going to do it. This hard-headedness also translates often
into a complete lack of understanding when other people aren’t as stubborn as I
am. When people tell me how much they’d love to do something, climb a mountain
for example, and are at a loss for words when my response is “alright, let’s do
it”, I am also just as much confused when I do not receive an affirmative
response. In my eyes, if you truly want something, nothing, ever, can or will
stop you. Yes, that does include money. The number of time’s I’ve told someone
my dreams of travel and have been told how much Person X would love to travel
also, but tell me they can’t afford it, or have too many responsibilities back
home, or whatever the case may be, are beyond counting. There are ways to do it
for nothing. I swear.
So why do people have these dreams, but always find excuses
not to chase them? In the most basic response: Hell if I know. Honestly, I
really don’t think I will ever understand how you can talk yourself out of
doing what will make you happy in life, instead continuing doing the same thing
unhappily and complaining about it the whole time. The most common reason for
not doing things often comes down to money. While I do very much understand how
money is a large factor in your ability to do something, I still stand by my
statement that there is ALWAYS a way to accomplish what you want to do. But you
need to be creative. I read an article awhile back about a woman who is
hitchhiking rides at private airports, traveling the entire United States by
air, without paying for any of it. While this may be an extreme situation for
many, the purpose is to provide a simple example of just how far a little bit
of creativity will take you. The point is to dream. Just a little bit. Or a
lot. Whatever fits your style. Don’t be afraid to admit what makes you happy,
and admit what you’re passionate about. And even more importantly, never let
anything, ever, stop you from accomplishing those things.
But back to the question, how to do it? In my experience,
you need something to keep you honest. Something to remind yourself why you’re
doing what you’re doing, or remind you why you need to stop doing what you’re
doing. And better yet, you need to know what you actually want. Somewhere in
the range of 7 years ago, I first decided to write a list of 100 things I
wanted to do before I died, a bucket list you might call it. Since then, I have
been continually adding to it, and have somewhere just over 140 things on it
right now. These things range from the seemingly simple (solve a rubics cube),
the obviously absurd (do a backflip off a pogo stick), the sometimes
indefinable (make a difference), to the big life moments (lose at candyland to
my kid). But the ultimate point is to keep me honest.
Often time’s people read my bucket list and ask me how I
plan to accomplish everything on it. The answer is this: I don’t. But I also
don’t have any intention of deciding which things will and won’t happen. The
point of a bucket list is to know what you’re passionate about, and have it be
an ever present reminder. Personally, my list has hung on the back of my bedroom
door since I made it. I always make sure it is hanging somewhere that I will
see every day: an ever present reminder of what I choose to live for. Anyone
who’s ever gotten to know me can generally vouch for the fact that I highly
encourage everyone to make their own lists. If you’re drawing a blank, a quick
Google search can give you some fun ideas to help you brainstorm.
But a bucket list is also a commitment. It’s a promise to
yourself. A promise that you will not forget what you are passionate about, and
what will make you so stubborn that you will not let anything stop you from
accomplishing those things. I have had many days where I have sat around bored,
and decided it was a good time to check something off my list. Those days I
simply choose something at random, and I go accomplish it. Before I left for
the Peace Corps, a friend of mine said something to me. She said: “Monika,
please promise me something. Promise me you will never stop making questionable
decisions that turn into really great stories.” And I haven’t. I may seem a
little bit crazy sometimes, but at the end of the day, I have some crazy
stories. And I have those stories because I choose to live everyday to the
fullest. So if I mess up and do something weird, I at least have a great
experience from it. And that’s why I think it’s so important to have a bucket
list. Could I live my whole life never accomplishing solving a Rubics Cube? Of
course I could. What a silly question. But the fact is, I want to solve one, so
why not do it? I think if you always just say to yourself “you know, someday, I
want to do XXXX” then it all becomes too much to handle. You just can’t keep
track of everything in your head, and you never end up accomplishing them then.
If you write it all down, you hold yourself accountable to it, and hey, it’s
fun to cross things off when you do them.
Here’s my bucket list (minus a few things that really just
shouldn’t be on the internet) for you all to see, and maybe use as some
inspiration. Even if your list is only 20 items, I highly, HIGHLY advocate for
everyone to at least try sitting down sometime to write one.
1. Come out to the
world
2. Witness a
miracle
3. Make a
difference
4. Teach someone
acceptance
5. Dance on
another planet
6. Put footprints
on the moon
7. Change
someone's view on gays
8. Have foster
children
9. Dance in the
rain with a special someone
10. Fall asleep in
the arms of someone I love
11. Kiss in the
moonlight
12. Go to college
13. Get married
14. Have a purple
Mohawk
15. Save a life
16. Befriend an
enemy
17. Never judge
18. Hug someone
randomly
19. Get a Ph.D.
20. Lose at
Candyland to my kid
21. Show someone my
beliefs
22. Be proud of who
I am
23. Spend Seafair
on the log boom with my dad
24. Learn to play
the guitar
25. Own a sports
car
26. Take a
snowboard trip to the Swiss Alps
27. Take a
snowboard trip to Chili
28. Snowboard on
every continent
29. Buy dad flight
school classes
30. Take mom on a
cruise
31. Buy dad a boat
32. Travel the
world
33. Get a piercing
34. Get a tattoo
35. Join the peace
corps
36. Learn to fly
37. Drive a racecar
38. Appear in a
movie
39. Learn to dance
40. Fire a gun
41. Go on an
African safari
42. Learn to SCUBA
dive
43. Own my own
store
44. Invent
something
45. Steal something
46. Party like a
rockstar
47. Have a pet
turtle named Fredrick
48. Have a pet
shark named Antonio
49. See the
southern cross
50. See the aurora
borealis
51. Learn to play
the drums
52. Go backpacking
53. Get a joint
citizenship
54. Learn to ski
55. Lose Weight
56. Ride in a
submarine
57. Ride in a hot
air balloon
58. Do something
inappropriate
59. Own over 200
movies
60. Take up
photography
61. Watch an
Olympic table tennis match
62. Push every
button in an elevator
63. Get kicked out
of somewhere
64. See the dark
side of the moon
65. Walk down the
street dressed like Superman
66. Get arrested
67. See over 30
concerts
68. Tour a Nazi
death camp
69. Take a cross
country road trip
70. Overcome my
fears
71. Write a song
72. Defy gravity
73. Be fluent in
another language
74. Visit Vatican
City
75. Visit the CERN
lab
76. Ride a
Snowmobile
77. Punch someone
78. Drive a sports
car down the autobahn
79. Wish on a star
80. Build my own
telescope
81. Change the
world.
82. Pay it forward
83. Go 4-Wheeling
84. Live a life unrequiring of a car
85. Unicycle
everywhere for a week.
86. Step foot on
every continent, including Antarctica
87. Climb Mt.
Rainer
88. Go parasailing.
89. Tell someone
exactly what I think of them.
90. Watch a concert
from the very front row.
91. Create a
makeshift bat-mobile and roll down a hill in it dressed like batman.
92. T.P. a house.
93. Fork a yard.
94. Complete the 1
gallon challenge
95. Have a one
night stand
96. Snowboard a
halfpipe
97. Learn to
wakeboard
98. Restore an old
car
99. Witness a solar
eclipse
100.
Witness a lunar eclipse
101.
Climb the Eiffel Tower
102.
Golf a game under 100
103.
Ride a gondola in Venice
104.
Louge
105.
Visit all 50 states
106.
Ride a camel
107.
Solve a Rubics Cube
108.
Do Indoor Sky Diving
109.
Build a Pizza Oven
110.
Be Vegetarian
111.
Go jet skiing
112.
Go geocaching
113.
Watch a rocket launch live
114.
Break a Guinness World Record
115.
See the Grand Canyon
116.
Dive in the Galapagos
119.
Do a back flip off a pogo stick
120.
Brew my own beer
121.
Knit a hat
122.
See every Best Picture Winner
123.
Make up a new identity in Vegas
124.
Own an Aston Martin
125.
Stay at an ice hotel
126.
Watch turtles hatch and run to the ocean
127.
Study religion
128.
Play bigger or better on Craigslist
129.
Be a spectator at the Olympics
130.
Be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve
131.
Learn to meditate
132.
March in a protest
133.
Work for a non-profit organization
134.
Jump into a pool with all my clothes on
135.
Have a stranger tattoo my name onto them.
136.
Hop a train
137.
Crash a wedding
138.
Have sex in a church
139.
Fire a bow and arrow
140.
Climb Kilimanjaro
If you have a bucket list, I would love to see it! Post it in the comments or email it to anderson.monika87@gmail.com
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