There's a hole in my bucket
Yes, I’m one of those people that cannot get anything done unless it’s on a list. Right here is where I share lists and my journey of ticking every box I can find and if it’s not on a list, I will personally add it!
Why have a bucket list and have it just sit there?
My sister was diagnosed with MS, and two years on she has to spend her days in a wheelchair and my mum moved in with her to help her with every day life things. It has opened my eyes to how fragile life is and how waiting for later to do the stuff of daydreams might just be too late. So I picked up a notebook I had lying around for years, where on the first two pages you can write down all the things you want to go and do. After those are pages to write when you did these things, add a photo doing these things and write about the experience of doing these things.
Mine had only three things on the first page. The rest of this notebook was completely empty …
parachute jump
abseiling from the Euromast (Rotterdam)
illustrating a children’s book
Take a parachute and jump
I promised myself I would do these things a soon as I could. That summer, vacationing in the Dolomites (please go and visit, it’s beautiful) I jumped off a mountain. It was a tandem parachute jump and it was bloody amazing. I think I was smiling for months after!
Actually, in a little over two years I made three jumps. The second one was the best, cause we were flying for almost an hour! And the last was extra special because my daughter jumped too! Such an amazing adventure to share with her!
Rotterdam skyline
That very same year I went online to the Euromast website and booked an abseiling trip! Stepping over the balustrade railing at 100m and going down by nothing more than a rope. The instructor got a little worried when I stopped halfway down, but I just had to take a moment to admire the Rotterdam skyline and take it all in, I was actually doing it!
Children’s book! (YAY)
And just last week I handed in the illustrations for the very first children’s book I’ve ever illustrated. It was a self-publishing-project for the amazing author Andrea Metzler. Doing this with her has been an absolute blast and honor. I have learned so very much! We will have a ball doing book two together! I can’t wait!
The power of doing
I want you to know how powerful it made me feel that I’ve done these three things that I thought were unobtainable! I thought it would be impossible for me to illustrate a children’s book, that I would never be able to abseil! I managed to do it in just two and a half years!
While filling up the pages with stories and pictures of my adventures I find my bucket list empty … and I need that sense of power as a permanent fixture in my life. I read somewhere that going on one big adventure every year, will leave you with no regrets when your time comes … So while I have you here …. I would love to know what’s on your list? I might steal some of your daydreams. Oh … and did you tick some of your boxes? I would love to hear!
