A Bucket List

My general motto, other than YOLO, is, avoid cliches as much as possible (hahaha). However, bucket lists seem all the rage now, and on multiple occasions this summer I’ve found myself talking with folks about bucket lists–you know, the list of things you want to do or experience before you die. When asked what’s on my list, I have just said, “Well, I don’t know; I don’t have one.” In the past I’ve made lists of things I’d like to accomplish each year. Practical goals, like “don’t starve” or “remember to go to the dentist,” “finish master’s degree,” etc. And while I tend to be more of a “pipe dreamer” than a bucket-lister, a bucket list sounds like just the thing every blogger ought to compile and foist upon her small and acquiescent readership. Also, who doesn’t want to be like Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman? So, in no particular order, 25 things this 25-year-old wants to do before she dies:

1) Own an avocado tree

2) Swim in the Atlantic

3) Do a standing backflip

4) Read Les Miserables

5) Touch every continent (three down, four to go)

6) See an end to the Israel/Palestine conflict (idealist, I know)

7) Complete a PhD program

8) Publish a book, or two, or three

9) Ride a motorcycle

10) Survive said motorcycle ride

11) Have an outdoor kitchen that rivals Guy Fieri’s

12) Swim in the Mediterranean

13) Scuba dive

14) Overcome pathological fear of fish (preferably before completing #13)

15) Order sex on the beach (the drink)

16) Live by the sea

17) Get married (maybe)

18) See marriage equality achieved in the US

19) Become fluent, or close to fluent, in another language

20) Have coffee with Naomi Shihab Nye

21) Never relinquish my Ticket to Ride Europe winning streak.

22) Master the butterfly stroke

23) Turn my nieces and nephews into reading snobs

24) Be Shakira

25) Finish this blog post

What’s on your bucket list?