Bucket List

So, a big thing in my house (at least with my roommates) is that two of us have bucket lists. I pulled mine out today and revisited it, checking things off and expanding it where my dreams have taken me in the past few years. I've noticed that there are a lot of things I have done.

Travel
The biggest thing I want to do is travel. It's a general theme throughout my list. So far, I have been to three foreign countries: South Africa, Lesotho, and Honduras. I'm adding a fourth with my honeymoon to Curacao in the summer.

One of my other travel goals was definitely going on an African safari, which we did on our study abroad trip. It was amazing, and I was able to capture some great pictures. Giraffes became my favorite animal, because I still think about waking up to them outside my window.

Scuba Diving
This is another re-occurring theme in my bucket list (Looking at it today, I was able to categorize it since my interests have expanded - 5 years ago, it was just "scuba dive"). With this, I have accomplished my goal of diving with sharks while I was in Honduras. We did a shark dive at Cara a Cara near the island of Roatan. It was amazing, we had between 12 and 15 sharks around us on the dive. I would repeat the experience again in a heart beat.

Sports
Since I like adventure, I do thrive on the adrenaline rush, especially when I gain it from attaining a goal. I do have some sports goals to meet, though several of them involve some traveling.

The one I have completed (twice, in fact) is to complete a triathlon. In February 2008 and 2009, the College of St. Catherine had an annual indoor triathlon. I competed and completed it both of these years. The course was a 1-mile swim, 10-mile bike, 5-mile run. I completed my first year in 2:02:11. My second year, I completed the course in 1:51:54.


There are several other goals that I couldn't really "categorize," but I have accomplished several of these:

• Learn a new language: throughout high school, I studied both Spanish and German. Spanish has definitely come in handy, and the ability to use German once in a while is quite fun. Though I do occasionally get the two mixed up in a language mess.
• Adopt from an animal shelter: I did this over the past summer. I adopted a sweet dog named Cody. He's half Springer Spaniel, half Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. He's very sweet, good with kids, and has a ton of energy. He's perfect for me.
• Meet a Holocaust survivor: my first college adviser was a Holocaust survivor. She was born in Poland in 1940 and was Jewish. A Catholic family took her in and treated her as their illegitimate grand-child, which is how she survived. Her mother died, and she reconnected with her father in Canada when she was 9.
• Sing Karaoke: since my sister sings karaoke a few times a week, I have been sucked in a few times. My favorite is definitely "The Warrior" by Scandal and Patti Smyth.
• Sing Solo for an Audience: Since I graduated from high school, I have been singing for weddings, both with my church band and a few solo as well. I never thought I would love it as much as I do.
• Graduate from College: I graduated in May 2009 from the College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) with a degree in Communication Studies and a minor in Philosophy.

Okay, I have a decent start to my list. Though there is one area that I haven't been able to touch yet. It hinges on two things: getting through my wedding, and buying a house. So, when I have some updates to my list, I'm sure I'll post about them. Until then, I have a lot of work to do, and a lot of experiences to be had!