Tuesday Soul Searching: What's on Your Bucket List?

My mind wandered a bit this past Sunday, as I sat there in church, to all of the things I needed to do. I need to write a letter back to Grandma Anthony, I thought, jotting it down on my mental list. And the kitchen is dirty, and I need to catch up on my reading...

And then, as so often happens in the solitude of a church, my thoughts went to my Grandma Stehlik, who passed away just a little more than a year ago. As Mass went on, I thought about what a long life she had, and about all the things she must have seen and experienced in her years. It hurts to lose someone you love very much, but it makes me smile when I think about all of the wonderful years she had, and of the ones we had together.

My family, including my Grandma Stehlik, who passed away last year.

And I got to thinking: What do I want to see in my lifetime? What, when I'm 90 years old, do I want to tell my grandchildren and great-grandchildren about?

Up to this point, my life has been somewhat bland and unadventurous, with a few spurts of interesting international travel interrupting the monotony. Now, don't get me wrong, I like my life. I think it's just dandy. But I wander what I might add to my bucket list, to my list of life dreams and goals, that would give me something to strive for and might someday make a really great story. Because it pains me to think that one day, my grandchildren will be sitting on my lap, shining faces eager to be entertained, and ask, "Grandma, what adventures have you gone on? You must have seen so many exciting things," and I'll only be able to say, "Well...I clogged a Russian toilet once."*

*Note: that is actually a pretty good story.

So there, in the middle of all the blue-haired church ladies and fussy infants in the pews, I wrote my bucket list.

[All of this was during the homily, by the way. Please don't tell on me.]

My Bucket List

1. Become a mother. I know, I know, this isn't some bombastic, dangerous bucket list item. But to me, it's got to be one of the biggest adventures on Earth.
2. Go to the town where my grandpa was a POW during WWII. My Grandpa Stehlik was a bomber co-pilot during WWII and was shot down over Germany. Shortly before she passed, my grandma showed me his German POW papers, including photos of when he was taken prisoner and ones after he had been held for some time. It struck me how much difference just a few months could make on such a young man. Someday I'll go there, just to understand my family's history a little bit better.
3. Use old documents to find the area of France where my other grandpa was wounded during D-Day. This one, too, would be quite an adventure. My Grandpa Anthony was a sergeant in the Army and was wounded while invading the beaches of Normandy during D-Day. He's gone now, but I can still hear him, in my memories, talking about the ordeal he had to go through just to get back home after being so badly wounded. Needless to say, Grandpa wasn't very fond of France; his time there wasn't as enjoyable as mine. But then, I was there stuffing my face with bonbons and croissants and no one was shooting at me.
4. Party in a South Korean dance club. Because why wouldn't anyone want to do this?! I've seen enough K-Pop to know that these people would be so much fun to party with.
5. Stay a night in a castle. I'd want my husband there, and maybe a few friends, to enjoy the awesomeness that has to come with realizing that you're staying in a castle. I haven't decided which castle yet, but probably one in Germany or Austria because...just because.
6. Stay a night in a legitimately haunted castle. I'd want my husband, maybe a few friends, a Bible, and some Holy Water. I would probably have at least one heart attack (because I am the biggest scaredy-cat that ever lived), but it would be an awesome adventure.
7. Visit the hometowns of all of my ancestors. I'm a mixed breed: German, Czech, Irish...they're all very interesting and probably explain why I like beer so much. It would be neat to do some genealogy and get to know where I really come from by visiting my ancestors' hometowns.
8. Take a cross-country road trip, starting in Maine and going to San Diego. I know I'd hate everyone in the car by the time we got to Kentucky, but it's fun to dream about an imaginary trip that has no time or budget constraints and is filled with cheap roadside attractions, funny pictures, impromptu karaoke, and endless laughs.
9. Camp at Yellowstone. A former coworker of mine moonlights as a wildlife photographer, and just before I left to come to Illinois he was telling me about his most recent camping/photographing trip to Yellowstone. It sounds like the most majestic place on Earth, and someday I'd like to spend some time there just soaking it all in.
10. Hike the Appalachian Trail from start to finish. This sounds crazy, and it is; I think there's been, like, two people ever that have hiked the trail nonstop from start to finish. So I'll give you that one; I'll hike it in sections. This one got added to my bucket list after reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Wild. It is a hilarious book, and I highly recommend it!

My list came to ten items. It's not a required number, really, just more that my daydreaming was cut short when the sermon was done and everyone startled me by standing up and singing. So daydream and brainstorm as much as you please. I think it's good for the soul to do this silly little exercise every so often. It gives us time to step out of our day-to-day lives and really get down and examine what we really want to do deep down in the core of our being. Apparently for me, that's camping in haunted places and dancing in Korean dance clubs.

To each his own.

What's on your list? Share your bucket list below!