Maybe it’s because I’ve been so set in my ways that I needed a bucket list to bring me out of my comfort zone and to really embrace life, or maybe it’s because I was too afraid to do anything that having this list makes me feel like each task is accomplishable- and, granted, some are much more accomplishable than others, but still. Crossing things off of any list is satisfying and comforting, whether I have a to-do list and on it I write "blink” or whether there’s actually something big and scary and hard on it.

I want to share with you a few of the things on my bucket list- keep in mind that these things are in ZERO order. I’m not worried about a timeline, or schedule of when they’ll get done.

-Go bungee jumping, like the real kind off of a bridge

-Go to Fiji

-Have a competitive round of golf below 70 (My original goal was to break 80 in a tournament, but I did that already, so I thought I'd set the bar really high)

-Live in some city other than Chicago for at least a year

-Go to Base Camp at Mount Everest (because I like living on the edge)

- Read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

-Eat a quahog clam (because who wouldn’t want to try it?)

-Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway all the way across Russia. (it covers over a third of our planet and goes through 7 time zones, also I just want to travel on a sleeper train, so why not spend about a week in the middle of nowhere?)

I also have a “50 Things In 50 States” Bucket List where I found at least one thing in each of the United States to do. Here are some of the ones I came up with:

-Connecticut- Visit Hartford and Washington Depot, and New Haven because Gilmore Girls is life.

-Maine- watch the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, go to bar harbor, Fort Knox, drive the Golden Road and eat SO MUCH LOBSTER

-New Mexico- Watch a Balloon Glow at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, ride a hot air balloon.

-Vermont- Take a brewery tour, eat some Vermont White Cheddar in Vermont

My list will be a continuous work in progress. It is never-ending and I’ve accepted the fact that I probably never will do some of the things I have put on it. But it’s just fun to dream. So make a bucket list. Live each day for yourself, and for those who can't cross things off their bucket list anymore. Put every dream and every wish on it and maybe, someday, you’ll get to cross it off.