Everyone has a bucket list. But mine is a little bit different. Sometime in my teenage years, I started a list of things that I wanted to do before I was old, boring, or 30 years old. Whichever happened first.

Of course, at fifteen, thirty was another lifetime away. But now that I’m older, I find it growing disarmingly close. As a teenager, I thought life ended at thirty; however, now I find that life has become much sweeter. When I turn twenty-nine, I shall amend my list just a little. It shall become the old, boring, or 40 list. And every decade thereafter, I shall keep bumping the age back.

Because after all, you’re only as old as you allow yourself to be. And I intend to never be boring.

So here’s the ever-changing list. Hopefully things will be added and crossed off quite rapidly.

  • Learn another language
  • Fall truly, madly, deeply in love
  • Go on a safari
  • Memorize a book of the Bible
  • Visit Scotland and the ancestral homes
  • Backpack through Europe
  • Get married
  • Live a lifestyle of creating memories, no matter how mundane the day
  • Learn to sail
  • Go wine tasting – Napa?
  • Get a tattoo(?)
  • Help someone else realize their dream
  • Go on a trail ride
  • Let a stranger know that they are loved truly, madly, deeply by God
  • Create a memory that will leave a legacy for someone else
  • Live in a loft
  • Become known for loving people instead of talking about love
  • Donate a gallon of blood in one year and save some lives
  • Go white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon
  • Help my husband accomplish his dreams
  • Take a helicopter ride
  • Hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail
  • Become a novelist
  • Read every Agatha Christie novel
  • Watch the entire Godfather Trilogy
  • Hike a volcano (the ones in Portland don’t count)
  • Learn how to fish (and catch a few)
  • Take a train tour of the country
  • Go snorkeling
  • Watch all the Alfred Hitchcock movies
  • Go on a cruise with friends
  • Have kids
  • Tell the stories of trafficked, marginalized, and forgotten people
  • Hang out with people in a 3rd world country and see what life is really like
  • Listen to a classical music concert on the edge of the Grand Canyon
  • Learn to play another instrument
  • Visit NYC
  • Win a round of putt-putt golf
  • Visit a coffee plantation
  • Go to an opera
  • Paint a (ugly!) picture and hang it on a wall
  • Learn how to blow bubblegum bubbles
  • Become a lifeguard
  • Save a life
  • Jump off a bridge
  • Be interviewed on the radio
  • Be interviewed on TV
  • Go to Ireland
  • Watch the sunrise from the beach
  • Give most of my belongings away
  • Live in a foreign country for a year
  • Go to a lawnmower race
  • Travel to London
  • Hang up a hammock in the backyard
  • Watch someone get a tattoo
  • Plant a garden of wildflowers and watch them grow
  • Camp on the beach, hearing the surf at night
  • Learn to shoot
  • Ride a double-decker bus in London
  • Learn how to surf
  • Write a novel
  • Write a column
  • Learn how to two-step
  • Sharpen my photography skills
  • Win a game of poker
  • Participate in a 5k
  • Be in a documentary
  • Make a documentary
  • Learn the names of the stars
  • Learn how to dance
  • Go dancing in the moonlight
  • Swim in a lagoon
  • Go on a cross-country road-trip
  • Visit Roswell, New Mexico
  • Learn how to snowboard
  • Go beer tasting at a microbrewery (or the Guinness Factory)
  • See dolphins in the wild
  • Become a barista
  • Explore a shipwreck
  • Go to Athens
  • See the Golden Gate Bridge
  • Go to Disney Land
  • Watch Star Wars
  • Live in a metropolis
  • Live in a small town
  • Mentor someone
  • Trace my family history
  • Host movies by moonlight in the summertime
  • Listen to my grandparents how-we-met stories
  • Watch the Changing of the Guard in London
  • Create a haven where people feel safe, welcome, and loved
  • Take horseback riding lessons
  • Own a convertible
  • Try stand-up paddle boarding
  • Become a professional model
  • Go to a rodeo
  • Help someone get comfortable in the US