My latest favorite blog is that of author Mark Manson. After reading some of his sort-of-inspiring self-awareness and self-help articles, I decided to build a new life plan, starting with a bucket list. This is what I came up with!

1. World places to see:
   1. Greece (This one’s been a dream since high school, entirely the fault of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and 13 Little Blue Envelopes. Santorini is the #1 priority, but the plan I’ve sketched out includes Athens and the Peloponnese too.)
   2. Panama City/Panama (I was born there.)
   3. Dancing and art in Spain
   4. French countryside
   5. English literary sites (Austen! Shakespeare! Dickens! And MOST important of all — to me, anyway — the Brontë Parsonage Museum!)
   6. English pop culture landmarks (How can any fan of Sherlock or Doctor Who not spend at least a day or two in London?)
   7. Amsterdam (The Fault in Our Stars, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, you get the idea.)
   8. Paris? (It’s the city of love, but I’ve only heard negative things… I’m torn.)
   9. Castles and forests in Germany
   10. Ireland
   11. More of Latin America. (Maybe Mexico?)
2. U.S. places to see:
   1. Hawaii
   2. The Liberty Bell (100% because of How I Met Your Mother.)
   3. New York City
   4. California
   5. New England lighthouses
   6. New England historical cities and landmarks
   7. U.S. Declaration of Independence (National Treasure, anyone?)
3. Selections from my old high school bucket list:
   1. Look through a telescope
   2. Ride in a train
   3. Read all of Jane Austen’s books
   4. Write and perform a staged public fight or breakup
   5. Be in a parade
   6. Slide down a banister
   7. Take dancing lessons
   8. Learn sign language
4. Events and attractions:
   1. Take my children to Disney
   2. Attend another writing convention/conference (I went to one in high school and loved it. They’re my people, y’all.)
   3. Take my kids to Conner Prairie
5. Other adventures to pursue:
   1. Road trip!
   2. Write for a while in a cabin in the mountains (probably in Tennessee)
   3. Go offline for a month (no smartphone either)
   4. Scuba dive
   5. Have a positive camping experience (My one camping trip went quite wrong.)
6. Random:
   1. Make something fancy/elaborate from How To Cook That on YouTube
   2. Go to the bones place from The Fault in Our Stars
   3. Be in or host a book club
   4. Become more fluent in Spanish
   5. Learn archery
   6. Own a library-edition copy of The Ordinary Princess (Out-of-print children’s fairy tale I fell in love with in middle school. I need the special library-edition cover art from the version I first checked out over and over again.)
   7. Meet Cidney Swanson in person
   8. Sell 1,000 books in a year
   9. Go a month without added/refined sugar
   10. Conquer fear of spiders… and hold a spider (Sooo reluctant to put this one on the list…)
   11. Go to a local volleyball game
   12. Adopt a cat
   13. Adopt a dog
   14. Get an exotic pet (a bird or a snake or maybe even rats)
   15. Trace/record/research my family tree/genealogy
   16. Ride in a limo
   17. Karaoke
   18. Get my fortune/tarot read
   19. Learn to change a tire
   20. Renew my CPR certification
   21. Take self defense classes
   22. Buy a lottery ticket
   23. Take a local writing class
   24. Take cooking classes
   25. Learn to navigate with just a map and compass (…and learn to read a map)
   26. Learn to drive stick
   27. Learn to handle/fire a handgun
   28. Roast my own Thanksgiving turkey
   29. Teach a course/class/seminar/something
   30. Learn to cut hair
   31. Swim across the lake at my boyfriend’s family’s place
7. Read (or re-read) every book on my 100 Books List
8. Read all the books I own