My Bucket List for Life

Life is crazy. It surprises me at every turn. Just when I think I know exactly what's coming next, it
throws a new adventure my way, or a roadblock pops up and I have to travel a different road. I used to feel like I could only take so many roads in life before the journey would end.

Lately, however, my heart has been telling me otherwise. I think my natural inclination is to fear the unknown, and yet to long for it with every fiber of my being. I want to accomplish so many things, but I'm always fighting my fears. Will I ever have the money for that? What if I get injured? What if I don't succeed? And the list goes on and on and on. More times than not, these thoughts win out. My heart is not a terribly courageous one and that's not something I'm proud of; it's just the way it is. I'm not sure why, but I feel always so cautious in the face of life's wildness.
Lately, though, I've decided that I need to stop fearing the possibilities, and instead of asking, "How?" ask, "Why on earth not?" I'm not willing, as cheesy as this may sound, to continually live in a state of caution and fear. I want to have adventures, and not just tiptoe along my road, but run, leap, and dance!

So here is my bucket list. It is a compilation of my ideas of what I want to accomplish before I reach the end of my road.
Some of them are silly. Some serious. But I hope that one way or another, they all come to be.

MY BUCKET LIST OF AWESOMENESS

1. Write a book (any book will do!)
2. Have said book published
3. Travel Europe (especially Ireland)
4. Dance in a public place with a loved one
5. Teach literature and writing
6. Improve piano skills
7. Learn German
8. Pet a Giraffe (I LOVE giraffes!)
9. Improve painting and drawing abilities 
10. Open a photography studio in my home
11. Catch a HUGE fish!
12. Go ice fishing (maybe that should have preceded 11?)
13. Write for a magazine
14. Drive a big black pick-up
15. Go to a concert with thousands of people
16. Make homemade bread successfully
17. Improve knitting skills
18. Try surfing
19. Have my own garden
20. Earn multiple degrees (I almost have my first!!!)
21. Have a stranger offer to buy me a drink
22. Try all kinds of new foods
23. Read as many books as possible
24. Watch the sun set from the top of a mountain
25. Be someone's maid of honor
26. Try a fried pickle
27. Improve sewing skills
28. Visit each of the 50 states
29. Drink coffee at a sidewalk cafe
30. Watch every Alfred Hitchcock movie ever made!
31. Drive a mini-cooper
33. Walk the Camino
34. Go skinny-dipping (again, that is...)  
35. Learn how to freaking French-braid
36. Learn how to curl my hair (yes, at 19, I still can't)
37. Go on a mission trip to a foreign country
38. Own/help operate a thrift store
39. Have a leading role in a play
40. Become more educated about music and art
41. Ride in a hot air balloon
42. Star gaze from a mountain
43. Have my own writing studio
44. Learn how to tie a tie
45. Be more adventurous with my style
46. Get in shape (you knew it was coming, didn't you?)
47. Milk a cow
48. Sing a solo, or duet in front of a crowd
49. Grow stronger in my faith (this should be number 1...)
50. Find sea glass at the ocean
51. Dance and laugh more frequently
52. Try a shot of Tequila ( or maybe two, or three...)
53. Go rock climbing
54. Own a fully functioning typewriter
55. Smoke a whole cigar
56. Learn how to ice skate and rollerblade
57. Catch some crawdads (don't ask)
58. Do a crazy road trip with friends
59. Write about the things I experience
60. Stop doubting that I can accomplish numbers 1-59

What's on your bucket list???