What's on your bucket list?

Q&A With Shay Each Sunday

I apologize for missing last week’s Q&A—poor planning before I was very busy for the weekend with company and a rather disastrous music festival. It’s kind of funny though because I had already been planning this blog post, and last Sunday I got to check an item off the list. I actually have a “working” bucket list that has been in a document on my computer for several years. I have had the pleasure of crossing off some of the items, but there are many I have yet to get to. I’ll give you a few highlights of things I’ve done and things I haven’t. I’ve been trying to get the list to 100, but I think I’m only in the fifties. I guess I need to brainstorm some more desires.

Q: What’s on your bucket list?

A: So, as cliche as it may be, we usually think of things like skydiving and bungee jumping when thinking of bucket lists. And they are both, in fact, on mine. I have completed the skydiving item though! For my high school graduation, when I was eighteen, I went skydiving. And, I’ve been really wanting to go again ever since. I can’t believe it’s been eleven years. I have not, however, gone bungee jumping yet. This is one that I go back and forth on whether I really want to do it or not. It just looks like you’d get whiplash or something. If the opportunity arises, though, I’ve gotta try it.

Another couple items I have checked off already are: swimming with sharks (scary but cool), scuba diving (hurt my ears a lot but I’d try again), rock climbing (caused a lot of soreness, and definitely want to do it again), zip-lining (gone a few times and I LOVE it). Then, the more “simple” ones such as: own a rescue dog (he’s the best baby), read 25 books in a year (I think my record is 42, which is very good for me because I’m a really slow reader), go to the rainforest (went in Costa Rica—amazing).

The one I crossed off last Sunday was to shoot a gun (pictured). I’m pretty much against guns (in a perfect world anyway), but I had kind of always wanted to shoot one. It was basically just as scary as I thought it would be. Luckily, our friend who is in NYPD was visiting and helped coach me through it. I’m not sure I’d want to do it again, but I guess anything is possible.

Items I have yet to achieve: For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit all 50 states. I think I’ve gotten to about 35 so far, maybe less, obviously I need to get to work! Then, there is running a marathon. Not sure when I’ll be getting to that seeing as I kind of hate running. Since I was such an avid tennis player, I have always wanted to go to all four grand slams. I’ve been to two so far—US Open and Wimbledon. I’d like to go to Niagara Falls, Greece, Fiji, Octoberfest, and, like, a lot of other places. I want to learn how to play “Heart Shaped Box” on the guitar. I had gotten something of a start on that a few years ago, but then put the guitar away. I’ll get back to it eventually. Learning calligraphy (how to do it well) is another one.

I have several writing related goals on the list, but I’m going to keep those to myself for now. I’ll let you know when they get checked off.

Tell me what’s on your bucket list! Maybe I can steal some of your ideas to continue beefing mine up, and there are tons I didn't mention here, so maybe I should really just get to work on checking them off. Or, ya know, I could stay in my little writing cocoon instead.