Kick the Bucket List
- Stephanie Mahoney
- Jul 12, 2018
- 11 min read
Updated: Feb 20, 2024
I have this phrase that I say when I see something cool: “Oh! That’s awesome- I should add that to my bucket list!” Which is great, except that, I don’t have one—a bucket list, that is. Officially, anyways. So, one day I started to write down ideas. And I wrote and I wrote. Then, I started feeling anxious. “What if I can’t possibly write down everything I want to do? What if my notions of items to accomplish change over time? I WANT TO DO EVERYTHING— There isn’t a list large enough for me!”
Choosing a calmer task (sort of), I turned to browsing the internet to look up ideas for what other sorts of bucket lists were out there. Turns out, I’m not alone. Making huge bucket lists is almost as popular as simply accomplishing the items on them. One of my favorites is done by this woman who seems to making her living by making and accomplishing various bucket lists. (I’ll have to admit that I took some inspiration from her for mine.) www.bucketlistjourney.net
Her name is Annette White and she wrote something on one of the first links that I clicked on that has stuck with me: “Welcome to my ginormous bucket list, which was started in 2006. It is a never-ending work in progress, continuously being altered, updated, contemplated and rejuvenated—much like myself.”
Whew. What a relief. I continued researching more deeply into possibilities of great adventures that were simply waiting out in the world to be acknowledged. I found some great ideas and even smiled quite a bit at finding ‘bucket list items’ that I had already checked off. Here’s a fun little list of the bucket list items that I’ve already done, in case you’re interested.
So, here’s the Stephanie A.P. Mahoney Bucket List, started December 29, 2017. And I’m sure that by the time that this list is read, it will have been updated several times. Which is good for the list maker in me. But that’s not really the point, is it? The point isn’t in making the list itself, but choosing to get out there, intentionally putting yourself out there and live. Like the last line in one of my favorite movies, Hook: “to live, would be an awfully big adventure.”
{Updates in 2024: It's quite incredible to look at a list generated at such a different time in my life. My original bucket list was formed two years before I met my husband and we moved to our little slice of homesteading paradise. To be sure, the adventurous Stephy still lingers in some of these items, but I'm finding so many new items for the list, and several that I don't care about as much anymore. It's a beautiful journey!}
LEARN HOW TO
❒ Craft a balloon animal
❒ Identify 10 constellations
❒ Juggle
❒ Perform a magic trick
❒ Fly an Airplane
❒ Take pictures under water
❒ Learn how to say "hello" in 10 languages
❒ Master the art of self defense
❒ Ballroom dancing
❒ Learn the Alphabet in Sign Language
❒ Pan for gold
❒ Learn how to say "thank you" in 10 languages
❒ Learn how to say "I love you" in 10 languages
FOR THE LOVE OF ANIMALS
✥ Attend a rodeo
✥ Bathe an Elephant
✥ Feed a Crocodile
✥ Go horseback riding on the beach
✥ Go whale watching
✥ Hold a Baby Monkey
✥ Hold a Big Cat Baby
✥ Hold a Koala Bear
✥ Raise butterflies, tadpoles, praying mantis or an ant farm
✥ Train dogs from puppies
✥ Own a jellyfish aquarium
✥ Raise bees
✥ Ride a Camel in the dessert
✥ Ride in a horse & carriage in a city
✥ See baby turtles go to the ocean
✥ See gorillas in the wild
✥ See the Big 5 on a safari
✥ See the salmon run
✥ Shear a Sheep
✥ Swim with dolphins
✥ Swim with sea turtles (on purpose)
✥ Swim with sharks
✥ Swim with sting rays
✥ Take a falconry class
✥ Wrap a snake around my neck
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
❆ Learn how to start a fire without matches
❆ Go clamming
❆ Go fly-fishing
❆ Go geocaching
❆ Go glamping
❆ Go shrimping
❆ Go paddle-boarding
❆ Go stargazing
❆ Rappel Down a Waterfall
❆ Rappel into a cave
❆ Scuba dive the great barrier reef
❆ See the Northern Lights
❆ Sleep in a Yurt
❆ Sleep in an Igloo
❆ Snorkel through the Coral Reef
❆ Stand Under a Waterfall
❆ Go whitewater rafting
❆ Hike Every Trail at one State Park
❆ Climb a volcano
❆ Sleep in a treehouse
❆ Sleep on a houseboat
❆ Stay on a Private Island
❆ Take a canoe trip that lasts longer than 2 days
❆ Travel in a camper van
❆ Visit a field of sunflowers
❆ Walk on a Black Sand Beach
❆ Watch the sun set at the Top of a Mountain
❆ Watch the sunrise & sunset in one Day
❆ Zip-line through a forest
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
◎ Learn how to sail a boat
◎ Drive a Race Car
◎ Drive a Snowmobile
◎ Drive a Speed Boat
◎ Drive a Zamboni
◎ Drive an ATV
◎ Learn how to drive stick-shift
◎ Drive around I-469 with a perfect playlist
◎ Fly in a Blimp
◎ Fly in a Helicopter
◎ Fly in a private jet
◎ Fly first class
◎ Fly the dang plane myself
◎ Get a Motorcycle License
◎ Go underwater in a Submarine
◎ Ride a Jet ski
◎ Ride a Segway
◎ Ride a Tandem Bicycle
◎ Ride a train
◎ Ride a Unicycle
◎ Ride in a dogsled
◎ Ride in a Dune Buggy
◎ Ride in a Gondola
◎ Paraglide
◎ Parasail
◎ Participate in zorbing
◎ Ride in a hot air balloon
◎ Ride a mechanical bull
◎ Ride in a Seaplane
◎ Ride in a Songthaew
◎ Ride in a Tuk Tuk
◎ Ride on a Subway
◎ Ride on the Trans-Siberian Railway
◎ Road trip across the USA
◎ Sleep in an Overnight Train
◎ Take a Train Cross Country
◎ Test Drive a Sleek Sportscar
◎ Travel in a swamp by Air Boat
◎ Travel on the Royal Scotsman
◎ Walk on Stilts
CREATE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
☞ Arrive at an Airport and Take a Flight Randomly
☞ Attend a Luau
☞ Be a Tourist in my own city
☞ Be an extra in a movie
☞ Build a Sand Castle
☞ Be the house on the block with the most Christmas lights
☞ Build our own house with inner courtyard, secret rooms
☞ Celebrate my Birthday in another country
☞ Celebrate New Year's Eve in a foreign city
☞ Charter a yacht
☞ Contact someone with my own name
☞ Create a set of cards with inspirational sayings on them and leave them in random places for strangers to find
☞ Enter a writing contest
☞ Fill all the Pages in my Passport
☞ Find a Treasure with a Metal Detector
☞ Get Picked Up at the Airport By Someone With a Sign With my Name on It
☞ Get flowers delivered weekly
☞ Give a Ted Talk
☞ Give a waiter a $100 tip
☞ Go caroling
☞ Have a romantic dinner on a rooftop
☞ Have a street artist paint a caricature of you.
☞ Have an adult slip & slide
☞ Jump off a high diving board
☞ Make and bury a time capsule
☞ Order Dinner in Reverse Order
☞ Participate in a Japanese Tea Ceremony
☞ Receive a Postcard from all 247 'Countries' from Postcrossing
☞ Release sky lanterns
☞ Saber a Champagne Bottle
☞ Send a message in a bottle
☞ Sing the White Album finale on the edge of the Grand Canyon with all the musical instruments
☞ Sit on a jury
☞ Sleep in an ice hotel
☞ Stay in a castle
☞ Solve a Rubiks Cube
☞ Stay at an all-inclusive resort
☞ Stay in a 5 Star Resort
☞ Stay in an Underwater Hotel
☞ Visit a Butterfly Sanctuary
☞ Visit a Ghost Town
☞ Visit Abbey Road in London and re-create The Beatles’ cover.
☞ Visit the Loch Ness
☞ Walk Down a Red Carpet
☞ Walk on a Glacier
☞ Walk on hot coals
☞ Watch Fireworks from a Boat on a Lake
☞ Write a fan letter to your favorite Hollywood actor
☞ Write a list of 101 life lessons you’ve learned so far, and share it with the world
☞ Write a note and leave it in a library book
☞ Participate in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World has Ever Seen
ZERO WASTE
❒ Compost all the food waste we throw away
❒ Reduce all the trash we throw out in a given week
❒ Recycle enough plastic lids to donate a buddy bench
❒ Grow my own coffee beans
❒ Grow a sustainable garden
❒ Design a hydroponic garden
❒ Open a garden-event center
RING THE DINNER BELL
❀ Go grape stomping
❀ Attend a Low Country Boil
❀ Attend a Pig Roast
❀ Attend a Tea Tasting
❀ Attend a Winemakers Dinner
❀ Bake homemade bread
❀ Cook Every Dish in One Cookbook
❀ Create an Ice Sculpture
❀ Create Latte Art with Barista Dritan or learn from Artwork
❀ Create my own personal recipe book
❀ Dine at Sanyou Cave Hanging Cliff Restaurant, China
❀ Dine in the Eiffel Tower
❀ Dismember a Chicken with Gordon Ramsay or with Serious Eats
❀ Drink a $200 Bottle of Wine
❀ Drink at a Distillery
❀ Drink at an Ice Bar
❀ Drink Juice from a Fresh Coconut
❀ Drink Tea at a Tea House
❀ Eat a Meal Cooked by a Celebrity Chef
❀ Eat a Molecular Gastronomy Dinner
❀ Eat at an Undersea Restaurant
❀ Eat at the French Laundry
❀ Eat at the Real Soup Nazi
❀ Eat in a Pitch Black Restaurant
❀ Enter Something in a Food Competition
❀ Extract Honey from a Bee Hive
❀ Go Cheese Tasting
❀ Go vegetarian for a week
❀ Have a Progressive Dining Experience
❀ Have a Wine Collection
❀ Have Afternoon Tea in an Expensive Hotel
❀ Hunt for Truffles
❀ Learn 5 good wine and cheese pairings
❀ Make a really nice meal from scratch
❀ Make homemade root beer
❀ Make spaghetti sauce from scratch
❀ Make Cheese
❀ Make homemade pickles
❀ Make Ice Cream the master recipe
❀ Make Fresh Pasta
❀ Make Wine
❀ Pick Fruit from a Tree & Make a Pie
❀ Recreate a Childhood Recipe
❀ Shuck Oysters
❀ Take a cooking class
❀ Toss Pizza Dough in the Air
❀ Try Bubble Tea
❀ Wade in a Cranberry Bog
❀ Catch, Cook & Eat a Fish
❀ Learn how to can and freeze veggies & foods
ALIVE...WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC
¤ Learn how to play the accordion
¤ Learn how to play the harmonica
¤ Learn how to yodel
¤ Memorize 5 songs to play on the piano
¤ Memorize 10 songs to play on the guitar
SPORTS & FITNESS
◘ Learn how to surf
◘ Learn how to scuba dive
◘ Learn how to kite surf
◘ Play a game of paintball
◘ Achieve my Ideal Weight
◘ Attend the Olympics
◘ Climb an Indoor Rock Wall
◘ Complete a couch to 5K challenge
◘ Dive Off the High Diving Board
◘ Do a Belly Dance
◘ Drink only water for a week
◘ Go Deep Sea Fishing
◘ Go Snowshoeing
◘ Go to the SuperBowl
◘ Karate Chop & Break a Wood Board
◘ Learn to Ice Skate Backwards
◘ Run a half marathon (run it, not walk)
◘ Run a marathon
◘ Run an 9 Minute Mile
◘ Skateboard on a Ramp
◘ Tap Dance well
◘ Learn how to Fence
◘ Learn a martial art
◘ Get in the best shape of my life
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
▷ Watch the Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet
▷Learn how to play chess
▷Learn how to play poker
▷Learn to play billiards really well
▷Create a movie marathon event and invite friends (Christmas, James Bond, Star Wars)
▷Watch all of the James Bond Movies
▷Watch all of the Star Wars Movies
▷Watch all of the Hobbit/Lord of the Ring Movies
▷Watch Every Movie That Has Been Directed By Steven Spielberg
▷ Attend a Chicago Bears game
▷ Attend a film premiere
▷ Attend a gallery opening
▷ Attend a masquerade ball
▷ Attend a murder mystery dinner
▷ Attend a TED talk conference
▷ Attend Comicon
▷ Be a game show contestant
▷ Be a member of a TV studio audience
▷ Be in a commercial
▷ Dress up and attend the opera
▷ Go to a book signing
▷ Go to a Renaissance Festival
▷ Host my own radio or podcast show
▷ See a Broadway play on Broadway
▷ Sit front row at a professional basketball game
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY BY THE POUND
✰ Own a House in a Foreign Country
✰ Be a landlord
✰ Build my own company
✰ Sell my own company
✰ Become an investor
✰ Open a spa
✰ Own an aquaponics farm
✰ Become a self-made millionaire
✰ Create a passive strain of income
✰ Donate money and have my name put on something
✰ Own investment real estate
✰ Complete all the steps of the Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom courses
CAUSE FOR SAINTHOOD
✥ Go to Confession monthly for a year
✥ Go to Mass every day for an entire month
✥ Visit US pilgrim sites
✥ Walk the Camino
✥ Go on a silent retreat
✥ Read the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church
✥ Memorize my favorite Gospel: The Gospel of John
STYLE: FASHION & BEAUTY
❧ Grow my hair long enough to donate
❧ Have a hot stone massage
❧ Get a Thai Massage
❧ Dye my hair a crazy color
❧ Find my own signature perfume
❧ Find the perfect black dress
❧ Take a mud bath
❧ Try brow threading
❧ Wear colored contacts
LET THE CREATIVE JUICES FLOW
✯ Participate in NaNoWriMo Happening now in November 2021!
✯ Write a Book
✯ Publish a Book
✯ Write a Children’s Book — Thanks to some friends who are also writing children’s books, I’ve been held accountable to at least making a list of my ideas— a step forward!
✯ Take a great picture, print it, frame it and put it on the wall
✯ Take a photo every day for a year
✯ Take a photography class
✯ Take an art class
✯ Blow Glass
✯ Create a piece of art and sell it
✯ Learn origami
✯ Make mosaic art
✯ Make soap
✯ Make paper
JUST FOR ME
❊ Be kissed in the rain
❊ Be on the New York Times Bestsellers List
❊ Get my masters degree
❊ Give away something really expensive
❊ Go 24 hours without technology
❊ Have professional pictures taken
❊ Learn to speak Italian
❊ Learn to speak Polish
❊ Learn to speak Spanish
❊ Organize my own improv group
❊ Preplan my funeral
❊ Complete The Big Read(ing) Challenge & Bonus (Updating all the time!)
❊ Read as many books as the last two numbers of the year (Updating yearly!)
❊ Record a song
❊ Research my family tree
❊ Slide Down a Firehouse Pole
❊ Write my will
❊ Unplug on Sundays for a year
❊ Write a gratitude journal
❊ Write a prayer and place it in the wailing wall
❊ Write letters to the top five people who have most impacted my life
FOR SOMEONE ELSE
✥ Pay for a stranger’s groceries
✥ Pay off the lunch bill for a child in need
✥ Personally thank a 9/11 firefighter
✥ Send a Care Package to a Soldier
✥ Sponsor a Child’s Wish through the Make-a-Wish Foundation
✥ Plant a tree in honor of a loved one
✥ Buy something for a stranger off their wish list/registry
TRAVEL THE USA
✰ Visit a state park in all 50 States
✰ Lay on the 4 State Corners all at one time
✰ Drive Route 66
✰ Visit All 50 States and see/eat something that they are known for (My google-sheets list is pending)
✰ Stick my Toes in Every Great Lake
#bucketlist #journey #list #animals #adventure #sports #entertainment #travel #learn #outdoors #driver #food #creative
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