The dreaded number is approaching, only it does not scare me, torment me or make me dread it. Fifty does not seem like the big deal everyone makes it out to be. It seems as though I am entering a phase in my life where I am more comfortable than I ever have been. Currently, while I approach 47 this year, I feel the need to shake things up a little. Having travelled a lot in my twenties, I was ready to settle down and have a family in my thirties and early forties. Now it is time for a little adventure.
At my dad’s birthday in December, we got talking around the dinner table about things he would still like to do, a “bucket list” of sorts; and it got me to thinking. Why wait until I am in my late seventies to start ticking items off my own bucket list. Sure, there are the kids, work, exercise and every other excuse imaginable in life right now, but if it is important enough, you make time for it, right? Come join me on my Fifty before 50 Bucket List adventure. I have just about three and a half years to complete this list, but first I have to write it.
Let us get started. Of course, these are in no particular order and a couple made their way on the list because they were in already in the works. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing off list items, even if you write them down just to cross them off. We have all done that before, haven’t we?
In no particular order, here is my list so far.
Fifty before 50 List:
Attend the Juno Awards
Attend a large multi-day concert (Song and Surf, Coachella, Bumbershoot)
Get involved in an art show that displays some of my photos
Drive across the country with my family (I did this solo in 1998)
Visit Iceland and snorkel between the continents, in the Silfra Fissure where tectonic plates meet
Visit the Yukon to see the northern lights
Attend a yoga retreat
Go on a “Girls Only” trip for the first time in my adult life
Be more toned and fit at fifty than I was at forty-five
Attend a wine education class
Write a book
Get published
Take a helicopter ride (Best-case scenario, I would fly with Bradley Friesen and his famous co-pilot dog, Bentley. They fly out of Pitt Meadows Airport and have a huge following on Instagram and YouTube).
Swim with dolphins in the wild (not captive dolphins)
Ride in a hot air balloon
Get a tattoo
Take Hip Hop and/or tap dancing lessons
Take a pole fitness class
Ride the zip line in Whistler
Pay it forward project (still formulating this one)
Learn how to snowboard
Write my memoirs
Ride the outdoor pipe coaster in Revelstoke, B.C.
Ride Atmosphere at Playland
Write a song and record it
Write ten poems
Write a children’s story
Attend an out of town conference
See Neil Young in Concert
Go to Vegas for the first time as an adult
Spend a month in Hawaii with the family
One week holiday in New York during Spring Break
Ride in a limo
Write a Haiku photo book, using my own photographs
Attend at least one concert a month
Volunteer at a soup kitchen/food bank
Create and take care packages downtown and give to people panhandling
If you are counting…you will realize I am short a few adventures. This is where YOU come in. What have you done in your life that is adventurous or made you feel good and/or give back to the community? Short of throwing myself out of a perfectly good airplane, I am interested to hear about ideas you think I should consider. What do I need to add to my list?
Great list that I am sure will inspire others, with ONE exception. Don’t fall victim to the ‘tattoo craze’. Why ruin perfectly good skin?
There, I said it.
Yes, you said it, thank you for your honesty. Some of these are items that put me “outside my comfort zone”, and a tattoo is one of them. I have a couple years to see if I follow through on this one.