25 “Bucket List” Memories I’ve Created

I go back and forth between loving the idea of a bucket list. As an sometimes overly organized person, I love crossing individual items off of the list and planning. I swear I’m always planning. However, the argument of enjoying life as it comes, not just by a list, strikes a chord with me. What I’ve done is create a hybrid. Instead of creating a strict list of ideas to follow, I write down items as I enjoy theme. A retroactive bucket list, if you will. I have an entire journal dedicated to it. Whether it’s dinner with an old friend or visiting a new country, I write it down and date it.

Earlier this week I celebrated my 25th birthday. To be honest, three years ago when I moved to Chicago, I had no idea where I would be at 25. Instead of focusing on where I “should be,” I’ve really focused on where I “have been” over the last quarter of a century.

When I was in middle school, I distinctly remember our teacher having us write a “bucket list.” I wish I could find that list and share it all with you; it would probably contain items like “meet N’Sync” or “get a dog.” However, I do remember writing as #1, see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in person. Every Thanksgiving, we spent the morning watching the parade on the TV from the couch. And every Thanksgiving I dreamed of watching it in person.

Flash forward ten years, not only was I watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I was PERFORMING in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. It’s a memory I worked very hard to create, and once again, the first item on my “bucket list.”

Here are 25 of my favorite memories I’ve created over the last 25 years:

1. Perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

2. Face Mask in the Blue Lagoon

3. Dine at a Three Star Michelin Restaurant

4. Eat at the World’s Highest Open Air Restaurant

5. Bath Elephants at Elephant Nature Park in Thailand

6. Sit in the audience of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

7. Have a cocktail made by the world famous bartender, Colin Peter Field, at the Ritz Paris

8. Share a bottle of wine with my husband on the steps in Florence

9. Visit my childhood home in Honolulu, Hawaii

10. Enjoy a meal with my family at my favorite restaurant in the world

11.  See the pope at the Vatican

12. Sail on Lake Michigan

13. Explore the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain

14. Sip tea at the Ritz London

15. Watch the original cast of Hamilton in New York City

16. Place bets at the Kentucky Derby

17. Eat waffles in Belgium (do you still call them Belgian waffles?)

18. Walk along the Berlin Wall

19. Canyoning in Interlaken, Switzerland

20. Snack on macarons and sip wine under the Eiffel Tower

21. Try sushi in Japan

22. Deep sea fishing with my father in the Gulf of Mexico

23. Take a pub crawl through the Red Light District in Amsterdam

24. Spend Christmas in the Carribbean

25. Move to Chicago

There’s always a memory to be made. What are your favorite memories you’ve created?

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