My Almost Bucket List

I read a post a day or two ago about bucket lists. Like Patrice, I have never had a bucket list. I never felt the need for one. I didn't panic when I turned 30. Or 40 for that matter.

I remember when I was in my early 20's, I worked in my mom's office part time. One of the gals that worked there was getting ready to turn 30. She was truly upset and worried because she had a bucket list and had not completed it. She had children, she was turning 30, her life was over! Very dramatic. I asked her why turning 30 was so bad. She lamented that she was getting old. I didn't understand because I wasn't knocking on the door to 30. Of course, I also had to ask what a bucket list was since I had never heard of it.

When I turned 30, I breathed a sigh of relief. No more would people look at me think I was still "young" and immature. I was an adult. No more being told I was only 20-something and I couldn't possibly understand. Mind you, I had my son when I was 22, one month to the day before I turned 23. It's not like I was a single, childless college student who had never been in the real world. I had a full time job and was raising my kid. I finally felt I had joined the ranks of adulthood.

I  just don't get the idea of a bucket list, though. If you have a goal or a desire to do something, why are you not striving to do it now, instead of some unspecified time in the future? Why wouldn't you want to? We have a goal and desire to own our own land. We are working towards it now. We have a goal date set. I don't understand the idea that you would want it and not go after it. If you have some place that you want to see or go, why not start saving now.

Maybe it's just me, but I look at a bucket list as a way to be unmotivated. If you can put it on a bucket list, you don't ever actually have to strive towards it. Perhaps some folks do. I don't know. I only know of a few folks that ever talked about having one, and without fail, none of them did any of the items on their lists and then complained about it. The folks that did do great or fun things, did them because they had an opportunity and they took it. My mom and sister went to Spain. A friend of mine went to Peru last summer. They didn't put it on some list and then whine about not going. They saved up the money (in my mom's case working two jobs) and went for it.

It could be that I don't feel the need for a bucket list because I don't have a desire to travel much beyond getting on the bike with my husband and taking a short trip. If I ever get to see the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone or some other place, then I will be pleased about it. I won't, however, be sad if I don't. I still have seen many beautiful and moving places in my life. I choose to be happy and content than to be sad and disappointed. If I were to have a bucket list, item number one would be to be happy.

What do you know? I had a bucket list and I completed it.