Thursday, May 24, 2018

Number Sixteen

About six or seven years ago, I read a book titled The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski. Cover your ears if you don’t want to hear what happens.

The book begins with two women - one in her early twenties, the other middle-aged - sitting at a Weight Watchers meeting. The younger woman needs a ride home. The middle-aged woman offers. There is an accident involving a truck. The younger woman does not survive the crash. While lying in the street, waiting for first responders, the older woman sees a paper that has fallen out of the younger woman’s bag. She grabs it and later discovers it to be a bucket list - something along the lines of “20 Things I’d Like to Do before My 22nd Birthday.”

Struggling with an immense amount of guilt and responsibility, the older woman feels compelled to complete the younger woman’s list. Tackling the bucket list of a stranger, especially one so much younger, is unexpectedly exhilarating and enriching.

I was moved by this idea.

I approached my sister. We agreed to create a list for each other. We included small, easy things to complete as well as bigger, more complicated items that would take a bit of planning. We swapped lists, gave ourselves a year to do as many as we could, and made a point to track and record our progress just for fun.

Since then, every year on January 1st I have begun what I came to call my "Twenty Things to Try" list - some years swapping with a friend, other years, having friends on social media curate the list for me.

I’ve found, over time, that it’s not so much the item itself that enriches my life as it is something that happens as a result of completing that item. One year, for example, instead of throwing a dart at a map and going where it landed (as was listed on the challenge), a neighbor offered his bow and arrow. Not only did I enjoy a weekend in Minnesota, but I also spent a fun afternoon in a friend’s yard shooting arrows at maps.

As a result of these lists, I’ve gone zip lining with friends, sent a message in a bottle, spent a day in silence, did something that scared me (sold everything I had, packed the Prius, and moved to California!), finger painted, learned a new sport, volunteered at animal shelters, and rode the roller coaster on the beach at Santa Monica Pier. These are just a few of the many challenges I've completed.

I recorded my efforts on my Facebook page with photos, videos, notes, and blurbs.

Which brings me to the blog at hand.

This year, item #16 on my list is “Do something outside the box.”

I struggled to think of how to complete this one. I pretty much live my life outside the box. And then, one night, my daughter and I stumbled across a little journal at my local Barnes & Noble. Titled “My Ultimate Bucket List,” the book contains 300 items to be completed with room for notes.

“Mom,” my daughter said. “You’ve done bucket lists, but you’ve never done a list like this.”

She was right.

I bought the book and began to strategize.



On June 12, 2018 (my 55th birthday) I plan to launch an Instagram site dedicated to the project. The goal is to complete as many of the items as I can before reaching my next (56th) birthday on June 12, 2019.

I plan to offer challenges and contests to pull others into the project, encouraging followers to join me in the fun. As always, I will share my experiences through photos, videos, and blurbs.



These are the guidelines I have set for myself (and for others) for the project:




1. Nothing I’ve done to this point in my life counts (we're starting from ground zero)

2. No doubling up (for example, cannot count 1 activity for 3 items)

3. Skips are allowed (I’m human, it’s okay to say “no”)

4. Interpretation is up to the person completing the item (I will be veganizing some of these)

5. Check off as many items as possible by the end of one year



And, finally, the list itself. Join me - reach, stretch, grow. You have no idea the people you will meet, things you will learn, or good times you will have. I will share the Instagram site as soon as I have it up and ready so you can follow along.

Cheers,

Tammie


MY ULTIMATE BUCKET LIST



• Go sky diving
• Take a cruise
• Visit Las Vegas
• Plant a tree
• Learn to play an instrument
• Learn a new language
• Start a new tradition
• Test drive my dream car
• Ride in a limo
• Reach my goal weight
• Write a song
• Design a family tree that traces my lineage
• Send a message in a bottle
• Ride in a helicopter
• Meet a celebrity
• Relive a childhood memory
• Get hypnotized
• Get a tattoo
• Start a new business
• Run a marathon and finish
• Go to a concert of a favorite band
• Take a day trip to a wildlife preserve
• Go on a safari
• Get a part-time job as Santa one December
• Join a club
• Enter a talent show and win
• Attend a séance
• Slide down a fireman’s pole
• Send a secret admirer letter
• Attend a protest
• Go white water rafting
• Learn to say hello in 50 languages
• Attend a drive-in movie
• Celebrate the Dia de Los Muertos festival
• Make a time capsule and bury it
• Party at Coachella
• Start a blog and keep it going for at least a year
• Have a pen pal in another country
• Attend a murder mystery dinner
• Raise chickens and enjoy fresh eggs
• Throw a bachelor or bachelorette party for someone
• Be in a play
• Participate in a fantasy sports league and win
• Change my hairstyle
• Learn CPR
• Get dunked in a dunking booth
• Stand on an equator
• Fall asleep under the stars with someone I love
• Have a water balloon fight
• Participate in an open mic night
• Take a road trip down Route 66
• Complete all New Year’s resolutions I set in a year
• Start a weekly game with friends
• Ride in a hot air balloon
• Drink directly from a coconut
• Throw myself a birthday party
• Earn a medal or trophy in a competition
• Ride an elephant
• Visit the local SPCA or Humane Society and play with the animals
• Experience the Northern Lights
• Try a martial art
• Take a mud bath
• Climb a mountain
• Crash a wedding
• Get my picture in the newspaper
• Participate in the polar bear plunge
• Wear a snake around my neck
• Get an autograph of someone famous
• Get on a game show
• Ride a camel
• Jump in a bouncy castle as an adult
• Dress up in disguise for a day
• Go to a luau
• Explore a shipwreck
• Try mud wrestling
• Swim with sea turtles
• Get 15 minutes of fame
• Attend a movie premier
• Post something to YouTube
• Get into a VIP room/lounge
• Go to a floating lantern festival
• Try panning for gold
• Successfully throw a boomerang
• Visit a vineyard
• Get on stage at a concert
• Write and publish an ebook
• Donate money to a worthy cause
• Swing from a trapeze
• Kiss under a mistletoe
• Go to a rodeo
• Throw a dart at a map and go where it lands
• Go on a spiritual retreat
• Swim with dolphins
• Gamble in Las Vegas
• Try to be in two places at the same time
• Try yoga
• Write a screenplay
• Shower under a waterfall
• Go on a journey of self-discovery
• Walk a tightrope
• Learn to play the didgeridoo
• Witness a geyser erupting
• Try to find a four-leaf clover
• Name a star
• Get in a taxi and yell, “Follow that car!”
• Milk a cow
• Create your own card game
• Attend a toga party
• Fly a kite
• Learn to write calligraphy
• Build a tree house
• Read over 100 books in one year
• Go parasailing
• Sleep in a hammock
• Visit an island (any island)
• Try hang gliding
• Kiss an elephant’s trunk
• Get my name in lights
• Make someone’s wish come true
• Fly in a private plane
• Donate hair to cancer patients
• Enter a contest
• Be an extra in a movie
• Dance on a bar
• Go deep-sea fishing
• Take a sailing trip somewhere
• Have an Alice in Wonderland themed dinner party
• Adopt a dog
• Take my dream vacation
• Walk the red carpet at an event
• Go to a nude beach
• Go camping
• Create a children’s book
• Volunteer at a homeless shelter
• Dance on a conga line
• Dye my hair a crazy color for a day
• Give blood
• Invent something useful
• Make homemade ice cream
• Have my portrait painted
• Climb to the crow’s nest of a ship and take a photo of the view
• Enter an eating contest
• Visit a ghost town
• Visit a tropical rain forest
• Give a motivational speech to an audience
• Ride in a spaceship flight simulator
• Learn self-defense
• Inner tube down a lazy river
• Try to get a celebrity to tweet me or retweet a post I made
• Take a pottery class
• Kiss a stranger
• Ride on a parade float
• Give up 5 bad habits for at least a year
• Learn a magic trick
• Ride on a gondola
• Make a difference in at least one person’s life
• Have a summer romance
• Canoe down a river
• Buy myself an entire new wardrobe
• Visit 5 national parks
• Explore a cave
• Catch a foul ball at a baseball game
• Visit a castle
• Build a greenhouse
• Go skinny-dipping in a lake
• Eat street food in a foreign country
• Go jet skiing
• Bungee jump
• Have a candle light dinner
• Sleep on the beach
• Walk on stilts
• Hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa
• Learn to play the drums
• Visit the birthplace of my ancestors
• Visit Hawaii
• Create a new recipe
• Visit every state in the United States
• Attend a masquerade ball
• Explore the Grand Canyon
• Learn to juggle
• Visit Stonehenge
• Volunteer at a hospital
• Go rock climbing
• See a lunar eclipse
• Fry an egg on the sidewalk
• Make an investment in something
• Host a family reunion
• Pay it forward every day for one week
• Find a real pearl in an oyster
• Go off-roading
• Take a life drawing class
• Submit a photo to National Geographic
• Read a story at an elderly community
• Serenade someone in public
• Go to an award show
• Try every flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
• Compete in a row boat race
• Play strip poker
• Renovate an old piece of furniture
• See a shooting star
• Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
• Line dance
• Stay in a log cabin for a night
• Create a playlist for someone
• Ride on a double decker bus
• Solve a Rubik’s Cube
• Have a cowboy cookout
• Swim in the Dead Sea
• Give a lecture at a school
• Bathe in a mineral spring
• Roast marshmallows at a campfire
• DJ a party
• Go to a food festival
• Master my physical fitness level
• Go on a zip-line
• Take toys to a children’s hospital
• Ride a mechanical bull
• Learn survival skills
• Go kite boarding
• Visit Disney World or Disneyland
• Jump on a pogo stick
• Tour a ruin
• Try a Zumba class
• Build an igloo
• Tie messages on a bunch of balloons and let them go
• Be a part of a flash mob
• Teach a class in any subject
• Learn to ballroom dance
• Try glass blowing
• Sit in the very front seat of a roller coaster
• Go on a blind date
• Play Spin the Bottle with people at a party
• Start a food fight
• Attend any of the Olympic Games
• Complete a triathlon
• Be on TV
• Make a bucket list
• Stomp grapes at a vineyard
• Write a letter to myself and open it in 10 years
• Drink water from a glacier
• Go to a live auction and place a bid
• Cash in a winning lottery ticket or scratch off
• Pet a stingray
• Walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• Get a license for something other than driving
• Learn how to surf and go surfing
• Go horseback riding
• Have a monk bless me
• Volunteer as a Big Brother/Big Sister for a day
• Write a message in wet cement
• Bicycle across a bridge
• Target practice and hit the bull’s-eye
• Find my way out of a maze
• Get a degree
• Live in another country
• Build something that flies
• Start a collection of something (stamps, coins, etc.)
• Play charades at a party
• Enjoy and document a year’s worth of exploration
• Take a pottery class
• Kiss someone at midnight on New Year’s Eve
• Climb a tree
• Go to a jazz club
• Learn to ice skate
• Read the Bible
• Get a book autographed by its author
• Go to a theme park and ride every ride
• Touch the Hollywood sign
• Go scuba diving
• See a Broadway show
• Visit a wax museum
• Take an online course to better myself
• Visit a volcano
• Mentor a young person
• Have a date in Central Park, New York
• Watch the Ball drop live on New Year’s Eve in Times Square
• Race a car on a racetrack
• Go to a formal party
• Sunbathe on a yacht
• Write a business plan for a company I’ve been thinking about
• Try to beat a Guinness World Record
• Watch a symphony perform
• Build a snowman
• Have a spa day
• Swim with sharks
• Visit Hollywood
• Make a prank call
• Ride in a biplane
• Get backstage at a concert
• Do a road trip across the USA
• See a solar eclipse
• Go dogsledding
• Sing at a karaoke club
• Ride a train
• Learn how to lasso
• Collect honey from a beehive
• Skateboard
• Go night swimming in the ocean
• Play a round of golf
• Write a mission statement

4 comments:

  1. That's quite a list!

    I cannot wait for the updates. And, as always, pics or it never happened!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since when have you known me to do a thing and not talk about it? Pics for sure.

      Delete
  2. Update: Follow my progress and join me in the challenge. I can be found on Facebook and Instagram at @listcrazy

    ReplyDelete