As we enter the final days of summer, I’ve been a little down. 

This happens to me at the end of EVERYTHING I enjoy – the day after my wedding, the last few minutes of a great movie, the end of a vacation.

I learned in my 20s the very best way to pull myself out of it is to revisit my bucket list.

If you aren’t familiar, the bucket list was popularized in the early 2000s (culminating in a movie, which, admittedly, I have not watched) that is basically a list of experiences you’d like to have in your life.

Riding that cultural wave, I started making my list in 2009 and have been adding to it ever since. 

More than once, back when we used to host frequently, I would find someone from the party had snuck upstairs and was sitting at my desk reading the bucket list I keep pinned above my computer. The conversations we would have about things they wanted in their life – sometimes while people were doing keg stands mere feet from us – were some of my favorite.

There’s something about being reminded of how big the world is – and that joy is found in both the unique and the mundane – that moves me out of grief for this thing that was and into optimism about the many things that could be.

Speaking of which, we are working on big changes to Worthmore. I’m still noodling on a few things, but looking forward to sharing it all with you right after Labor Day.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my bucket list JUST in case it’s what you need right now too.

1. Have a wonderful marriage
2. Raise great kids
3. Backpack Europe
4. Learn to scuba dive
5. Visit the Galapagos
6. See the Eiffel Tower at night and visit the Louvre in Paris
7. Stay in a hut on the water in Bora Bora
8. Take a helicopter ride over a volcano in Hawaii
9. See the sunrise in Santorini
10. Take my kids to stay in a glass igloo in Finland
11. See a musical in NYC
12. Go zorbing and see the glowworm caves in New Zealand
13. See the Taj Mahal
14. Take a ride on the Glacier Express in Switzerland
15. Explore the markets of Marrakesh
16. Travel Southeast Asia
17. Watch the changing of the guards in London
18. Drink at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin
19. Go wine tasting in Napa
20. Take afternoon tea at Kensington Palace
21. Go to the Houston Rodeo
22. Attend the Kentucky Derby… once
23. See a country music performance at the Grand Ole Opry
24. Take my kids to Disneyland and see fireworks over Cinderella’s castle
25. Enjoy Jackson Hole in the summer
26. Watch Saturday Night Live… live
27. Laugh at a Second City Show in Chicago
28. Go to a Nascar Race
29. Ride a camel
30. See baby turtles hatch
31. Visit the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Vermont
32. Learn to cook – and taste olive oil – in Italy
33. Get a dog
34. Build a warm home where people can relax
35. Learn Spanish fluently
36. Paddle through a diamond river in Puerto Rico
37. Visit China
38. Go sailing
39. Live somewhere that’s outside of my comfort zone
40. Boat down the Mekong River from Laos to Thailand
41. Take a meditation class in Laos
42. Eat with locals in Zanzibar
43. Design my own clothes in Hoi Ann
44. See the sunrise over Angkor Wat
45. Drive a stick shift
46. Learn how to tie a bowtie
47. Play airport roulette
48. Run a marathon
49. Drive a red Jeep Wrangler
50. Write a book
51. Celebrate NYE in a dive bar with friends
52. Play in the rain with my kids
53. Take the kids to Yellowstone
54. Live in London
55. Take a boat ride in Venice
56. Learn to dance the tango in Argentina
57. Be the only person on an island
58. Learn to play tennis well enough to play a decent doubles game
59. Take an improv class
60. Drive Route 1 in California
61. Read my Grandfather’s set of 100 classical books
62. Hike Machu Picchu in Peru… then go hike up Huayna Picchu too
63. Take an around-the-world trip
64. Have a garden
65. Be initiated into YPO
66. Do something good for education in Atlanta
67. Stay in a hut on the water in the Maldives
68. Zip line in Costa Rica
69. See the works of Gaudi in Spain
70. Visit a country I’ve never heard of
71. Smoke a Cuban cigar in Havana
72. Drink tank beer in Prague
73. Play blackjack in Vegas
74. Eat at a Brazilian steakhouse in Brazil
75. Visit the happiest people in the world in Bhutan
76. Read a stack of books on the beaches of Antigua
77. Eat at Bern’s in Tampa
78. Go wine tasting in Willamette
79. Join the Christmas walk in Nantucket
80. Be in the best shape of my life
81. Share what I know about negotiating with other women
82. Visit a Blue Zone
83. Go on a special trip with my Mom
84. Take kids on the Blue Ridge Train
85. … and the Polar Express
86. Have enough family that gets along to take up a whole pew on Christmas