Everyone has them.? I first wrote a bucket list when I was fresh out of high school.? It included things like becoming an pulitzer prize winning novelist and telling off my old boyfriend.? I wrote it in a spiral bound notebook and called it, oh so romatically, “Things to do before I die.”? I left it on a shelf at my dad’s house when I went off to college and I am certain that it was tossed away when my dad moved.? I’ll never know what the teenage me wanted to do before she died.? Sad.? I would be funny to read now.
As an adult I think less and less about what things I want to do before I die, not that it is something I have to worry about right now.? I just know that at the end of my life I don’t want to say, “…I should have.”? However, there are a few things that I do know of that are on my supposed “bucket list.”
I’d like to have an autographed copy of a Stephen King novel.? I’d like to see him actually sign it.? I’d like to step foot on most of the continents.? I’m too girly to include Antartica in that one.? I’m sure it looks a lot like the outside of my window at the moment, with fewer cars, houses and trees and with more snow.? I’d also like to see an Olympic hockey game in person.? If I’m lucky I’ll get to see one next year, but I’m not counting on it.
Yesterday, I got to actually cross something off of my bucket list.? Something I’ve wanted to do since taking my very first anthropology class back in 1994.? See Lucy.
The trusty husband and I visited the Natural History Museum in New York City a few years ago and a few months after the trip he said that there was somthing that we missed.? He told me Lucy was in the basement.? Turns out that wasn’t true.? I can now forgive him.
Lucy is currently making a 6 year tour around the US and Seattle happens to be her second stop.? This is an unprecidented trip and opposed by great anthropologists like Leakey and Lovejoy.? It is uncommon for a city without a natural history museum to host such an exhibit because of security and the fragile nature of a 3.2 million year old skeleton.? So far the Science Center is doing a fantastic job.
I could have stood there for hours and looked at this single specimen.? Much like I could have brought my pillow and moved into the Metropolitain Museum of Art in NY.? Lucy is probably one of the single most important discoveries in the history of human evolution.? For a family that thrives on anthropology it is major.? I would have paid 3 times what they were asking to see the exhibit.
The boy was so well behaved considering it was nearly 4:00 and he hadn’t napped or eaten much.? The impact of the event was totally lost on the child, but if we are lucky, someday we will be able to go visit Lucy in her home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
I knew it would be big.? I didn’t realize that it would bring me nearly to tears.? Something I’ve wanted to do for so many years.? Something so big in such a little frame.? It was a good way to start the year.
So let me ask you… what is super big on your bucket list?
I have never thought about doing a bucketlist. I am afraid I would constantly be adding more thing then removing them. I guess one of the big things on my list would be to someday actually take some real college classes in photography. I play with my camera but would love to really take good pictures. Working full time that just isn’t in the cards right now so hopefully someday it will be.
A very good question … not sure if I’ve ever made a REAL bucket list, but it does inspire some pondering. The question I keep getting asked: “What do you DO?” And the answer is not your vocation.
I have a list of life goals on my refrigerator. It’s really for both E and me, but most of them are mine. Two of my most wanted are to live in NYC for one year, and to get remarried in Vegas.
I also want to go on some sort of anthropological expedition. Once when we had subscribed to National Geographic I had seen ads in the back for them. It was more like a working vacation I think. You pay them to go dig in the dirt… and they get free labor out of you.
Paris, eiffel tower, coffee at a cafe on the street with bread and cheese and a cigarette, maybe champagne (which I have quit but come on it is paris) and a fancy french outfit and a vuitton purse, black high heels. specific yes, but it is mine…
You saw Lucy! That’s is so way cool.
When I was younger a bucket list would have been something I did.
But now that I have survived a few harrowing and life-threatening circumstances my perspective is different. I hope that when I go that I have loved to the best of my ability. I am giving it a good shot with my kids, could do better with my husband, and am a work in progress with all others.
I would love to see a teenage version of my bucket list! (Alas, none exists.) It’s a shame yours didn’t get saved.
I’ve never actually thought about making such a list, but it’s not a bad idea. I’d love to help a woman deliver a baby in a hut somewhere in Africa. There’s a start.
Paris…. Eiffel tower, Lourve, all that good stuff.
I have always wanted to go to Paris
On My list was snorkeling in the Ocean…. I accomplished this.. Twice…. I was scared as hell ( love the water, not the best swimmer) but I did it anyway.. so I would not have any regrets.
I would love to go on a Missionary trip somewhere and really offer my help to people.
Oh wow – I am beside myself, green with envy, that you got to see Lucy. When I was in Addis Ababa, I went to the museum where she usually is, and saw the exhibit about her, but she was quite conspicuously absent. Boo.
I am so jealous that you got to see Lucy! As a former anthropology student myself, I would LOVE to see her! I’m glad you were able to cross that one off your bucket list.
My list includes a trip to Africa – a photo safari in Tanzania, visiting the pyramids of Giza, haggling in a Moroccan market… the list goes on and on.
I’d also like to see someone drive backwards over those spike things in parking lots. 😉