Bucket List, April 2016 Edition

I've been getting so inspired from the travel bucket lists that I've been compiling for this blog that I just want to share with you all a general list of many of the items that are on my overall bucket list for life. In thinking about this topic, I looked back on this post from February 2012, in which I wrote some of the items that were on my bucket list at the time. I'm happy to see that I've accomplished some of the items on the list since that time . . . I've seen a play on Broadway and been to Italy, and I've worked on a professor's research project on issues of neuroscience and the law, and I've graduated from law school (not summa cum laude though!) and passed the bar exam on the first try. I've run a half-marathon (well, four half-marathons). It's also interesting that some of the goals I noted back then aren't things I care that much about anymore, such as reading 100 classic or award-winning books. I know at the time I was meaning books like A Tale of Two Cities and Pride and Prejudice. Well, to be honest with you, I think books like that are usually really, really boring! I do want to read tons of books in my lifetime, but I'd prefer them to be the kind of books I actually like--novels, and mysteries, and books on travel and running and psychology, and memoirs from the lives of interesting people. In looking at some of the other goals from back then, I've decided that riding a roller coaster will probably NEVER happen (just like sky-diving is never going to happen), and I am not exactly going to be debt-free by December 31st unless I win the lottery. But that's okay.

Four years later, here are a number of the items on my current bucket list, in no particular order (including traveling to every place noted in those earlier posts!):

1. Do a mud run (not Tough Mudder, something a little more manageable)
2. Go stand-up paddleboarding
3. Take Korean classes
4. Become legitimately fluent in Spanish (I've gotten close a few times, and I think a few more classes should do it)
5. Run a full marathon
6. Go surfing in Africa
7. Read the Bible from cover to cover in 40 days (obviously working on this one right now)
8. Go skiing or snowboarding
9. Swim with whales, sharks, or dolphins
10. Run a night marathon under the midnight sun in Norway
11. Go to Antarctica
12. Have a traditional Bedouin meal and camp out under the stars in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan
13. See the pyramids
14. Ride a camel
15. Sleep in an igloo
16. Go ice-hole swimming in Finland
17. Go scuba diving
18. Go snorkeling
19. Eat street food in Bangkok
20. Get a standing ovation
21. Have a scholarly article published in a major family law publication
22. Teach family law and legal writing classes at a law school
23. Go to Rio de Janeiro and see the Christ the Redeemer statue
24. Go to Africa to visit one or both of the children I sponsor through World Vision
25. Attend a service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle
26. Give a waiter/ waitress a tip that is at least $50 for no special reason 
27. Hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim (and watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon)
28. Learn more languages, like Arabic or Italian
29. Visit every state in the US--I really only have a few to go, and if I went to all the states in the Northeast, I'd only have 7 left to go to. 
30. Join the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers
31. Mentor younger lawyers. This has become a cause dear to my heart in the last year or so! It's so needed. 
32. Go on a solo vacation that requires air travel
33. Go on an Alaskan cruise
34. Run an 8-minute mile (it may not sound that hard but for me this would be huge because I'm a slow runner), do at least 35 military-style pushups without a break, and hold the plank position for 5 minutes
35. Fast for at least 30 hours
36. See the Sydney Opera House
37. See an amazing Northern Lights show--I've had the privilege of seeing the Northern Lights, but I want to see them again where I can get a shot like this one:

I'd love to hear your bucket list ideas!