“If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” – Thomas Edison
A few months ago I was inspired by one of my friends to create a bucket list. For his senior honors thesis, he has been trying to develop a whole movement about living spontaneously. I had thought about creating a list before and with his influence and the fact that I will be graduating from college at the end of the semester, I began working on mine. It has actually taken me a few weeks to complete it, since I wanted to come up with exactly 100 things to do before I die. Through the process of making my list, I was able to reflect on some of the experiences I have already had and I realized there are a lot of things I already checked off my figurative list. Nonetheless, I came up with 100 (checked off one while still compiling it) and here you have it! (Originally published on April 1, 2013).
1. Publish a novel
2. Get married
3. Ride in a hot air balloon
4. Have a baby
5. Get a tattoo
6. See the Great Pyramids of Egypt
7. Learn to swim
8. Write for a newspaper – 7/1/13
9. Attend the Westminster Dog Show
10. Own a purebred Labrador
11. Own a beagle – 7/13/13
12. Release a floating lantern
13. Have a white Christmas
14. Mentor someone
15. Take a cross-country road trip
16. Visit every U.S. state
17. Go through Confirmation
18. Ensure my mother sees Italy
19. Learn another language
20. Buy a house
21. Be able to buy a new car
22. Live near a shore
23. Spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square
24. Watch the sunset on the West Coast (California)
25. Ride a camel
26. Go to a shooting range/shoot a handgun
27. Interview a celebrity
28. Win an award for writing
29. Learn to make my mother’s gravy
30. Learn to make homemade pasta/raviolis
31. Get a master’s degree
32. Maintain a well-trafficked blog
33. Visit different religious sites (Cathedral, synagogue, temple, mosque, etc.)
34. Attend at least one of every pro sport game (need: MLS and NFL)
35. Plant and nurture a tree
36. See the Northern Lights
37. Buy a homeless person dinner
38. Buy a random plane ticket/throw a dart at a map and go there
39. Attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
40. Celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans
41. Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary
42. Attach a lock to a love bridge
43. Donate blood
44. Go skinny-dipping
45. Spend the night/sleep on the beach
46. Go to a drive-in-movie
47. Write for a magazine
48. See The Lion King musical
49. See Aida, the musical
50. See a play on Broadway
51. Buy a veteran/soldier dinner
52. Research and document my family’s history
53. Record a story with StoryCorps
54. Volunteer through Big Brothers/Big Sisters
55. Ride a motorcycle
56. Go skydiving/fly
57. Sing karaoke – 3/11/13
58. Serve on Phi Sigma Pi’s National Council/National Staff
59. Become LIA certified through Phi Sigma Pi
60. Take the LSAT
61. Tie a wish to the wish tree at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL – 4/6/13
62. Send a message in a bottle – 6/24/13
63. Visit Rome with the love of my life
64. Witness an animal give birth
65. Pet a (baby) tiger
66. Become a grandparent
67. Attend an Olympic event
68. Plant a tree the year my child is born and watch it grow
69. Take a picture of my child on their first day of school every year
70. Ride a horse
71. Get my private investigator certification
72. Do a Picture-a-Day of food for a year
73. Ride an elephant
74. Party in Las Vegas
75. See the sunrise on the east coast of Florida and the sunset on the west coast the same day
76. Meet the (current) President
77. Attend a Stanley Cup final game
78. See Chelsea FC play at Stamford Bridge
79. Cook an entire traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas meal
80. Write my own wedding vows
81. Have a paint fight/play messy Twister
82. Finish an entire tube of Chapstick
83. Give up something meaningful for Lent and keep it
84. Compile a family cookbook
85. See the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains
86. See a wild moose
87. See a wild wolf, preferably in Yellowstone
88. Successfully fly a kite
89. Learn to knit like Grandma
90. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
91. Serve a meal at a homeless shelter/soup kitchen
92. Ride a dog sled
93. Wear a big hat to a tea party – 5/24/13
94. Attend the Kentucky Derby
95. Bake a cake completely from scratch
96. Finish the BBC’s 100 Books to Read Before You Die list
97. Watch AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies list
98. Build my children a treehouse
99. Attend the Epsilon Delta class inductions of the Epsilon Delta Chapter
100. Leave a lasting legacy
Meghan Mangrum 