The Bucket List

Every year for my portfolio project my students are expected to create three lists of 100 items. There is a likes, dislikes, and (the dreaded) bucket list. My students whine and complain about having to come up with 100 items to do before they die. They're given nine months to complete this task, so they have enough time to come up with 100 items. I decided that because there's so much complaining about this list that I had better sit down and write 100 items that I would like to do before I "kick the bucket." Honestly, I think it should be pretty easy to do, but who knows, maybe I'll be singing a different tune when I'm finished. When I show my students my example, I have written only about 10 things. 90 to go.

1. Finish Bucket List
2. Go to New Orleans
3. Go to San Francisco
4. Go to New York
5. Go to Rome, Italy
6. Go to Paris, France
7. Go to Iceland
8. Visit a concentration camp
9. See the Secret Annex in Amsterdam
10. Finish my masters
11. See what all the fuss is about Utah
12. Move back to the Twin Cities
13. Live in another state
14. Visit every continent
15. Go to Hawaii
16. See the Dixie Chicks live
17. Visit the Grand Canyon
18. Go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
19. Run a half marathon
20. Run a marathon
21. Go to Germany
22. Go to Greece
23. Go to Spain
24. Go to Thailand
25. Go back to China
26. Go to Washington, D.C.
27. Go to Boston, MA
28. Go to Seattle, WA
29. Organize my digital photos
30. Scuba dive
31. Go to Australia
32. See the Great Barrier Reef
33. Buy a house
34. Read Dune
35. Read the Game of Thrones series
36. Meet J.K. Rowling and get a signed book
37. Meet Lois Lowry and get a signed book
38. Get a puppy
39. Train the puppy well
40. Go on a cruise
41. Go to England
42. Go to Ireland
43. Go on an Alaskan cruise
44. Teach overseas
45. Learn how to do a Salchow or Axel jump in figure skating
46. See the Northern Lights
47. Go to the winter Olympics
48. Go paddle boarding
49. See the Statue of Liberty
50. See the Eiffel Tower
51. See the pyramids
52. See a whale
53. Go to India
54. Go to the Boundary Waters
55. Walk the Great Wall of China
56. Go to Niagara Falls
57. Run a 5k
58. Become a teacher
59. Get my reading license
60. Be a maid of honor
61. Fly somewhere
62. Take a trip on a train
63. Marriage??
64. If 63: kids??
65. Hear a Holocaust survivor tell their story
66. Go rock climbing
67. Figure out how to make better use of my prep
68. Go in the ocean
69. Learn American Sign Language
70. Purchase a car of my choosing
71. Pay off my student loans
72. Finish grading the portfolios
73. Go on a safari
74. See the Great Wall of China again
75. Pay off my credit card bills
76. Perfect my creme brulee
77. Do the Polar Plunge
78. Become a better runner
79. See New York at Christmas and go ice skating
80. Learn how to cook Thanksgiving dinner
81. See Stephan Colbert's show live
82. Learn how to play tennis
83. Go zorbing
84. Go sailing
85. Spend the night on a boat
86. Get better at yoga
87. Get a teaching job in the Twin Cities
88. Go to Hogwarts in Orlando, FL
89. See Stonehenge
90. Learn to snowboard
91. Get better at snowboarding
92. Learn to ski
93. Be in a flash mob
94. Have a photograph of mine published
95. Find out the trouble with boys (in education)
96. Change the course of someone's life (in a positive way)
97. Get better at archery
98. Drive my Saturn into the ground
99. Quit teaching before burnout
100. Read more

 My thoughts at 50: OK... this is hard. I've started to really pay attention to my student's lists to get ideas.  

Oy! I did alright until about 80 and then I got stuck. This list took me at least three weeks to create but at least I give my students almost nine months to create theirs.

Could you come up with 100? It's hard!