Bucket List

The other night, Robbie and I watched a National Geographic special on hiking the Appalachian Trail. Completing a thru hike of the AT is a dream we share, and watching the documentary only made me want to more. When I went to bed after that, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and was feeling a little sad because I couldn't imagine a time in our future where we would be able to have that much time off together to do the AT. But Robbie told me that after a certain amount of years, IDEXX will give him a huge chunk of paid time off, so our new goal is to use that time to hike the AT with our older children. That made me really excited and got me thinking about other things I want to do and accomplish in my lifetime. So, naturally, I got out of bed and started making a bucket list.

What I realized as I was writing my list is that I have already done a lot of the things I always dreamed about doing; and that made me feel very happy. Sometimes its easy to get swept up thinking about all the things you will never have time to do or be able to afford to do, and making this list helped me to realize how fortunate I am and what an amazing life I am living. I am so grateful for each and every second of it. And you know what? The remainder of this list really does not look impossible to me anymore.

So here is my list, in no particular order. I have included things I have already done simply because its important for me to remember that I am living my life now and have already done some really awesome things that have made me feel fulfilled and that I dreamed about doing as a little girl. I even included pictures to prove it!

Learn how to ride a horse

On Rosie, the first horse I learned to ride in high school

Ride a horse on a beach at sunset

In Prince Edward Island

Backpack through a jungle

My field team striking off on our trip into the Sumatran rainforest

Go to Paris

Me being silly in front of L'Arc de Triumphe in Paris

Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower

Robbie and I on top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset

See wild horses

Wild pony in Dover, UK

Wild ponies in Canterbury, UK

Hike the Appalachian Trail
Hike the 100 miles of Wilderness
Run a 5K

After completing a 5K

Run a 10k
Complete a triathlon
Write a novel
Become fluent in French
Learn how to fiddle
Visit the pyramids in Egypt
Take a ballet class
Learn a martial art

Taking a Judo class in Japan

Become a certified Yoga teacher
Earn a PhD (in ecology, conservation biology, trans species ecology or some similar field)
Go on a safari in Africa
Give birth completely naturally

Mattimeo was birth vaginally with no pain medication

Raise goats
Learn how to spin wool
Raise laying hens and/or ducks
Visit the Grand Canyon on a donkey
Ride a camel
Ride an elephant
Go whale watching
Watch baby sea turtles hatch
Visit a redwood forest
Learn how to swing dance
Learn how to ballroom dance
Take a painting class
Learn how to program
Read all the important classics
See the northern lights
Learn to identify the constellations
Hike Mount Fuji
Go to Japan

Me with friends on the busiest street in Japan (about to get ran over)

Go to Amsterdam

In Dam Square in Amsterdam with my friend Josh on New Years Eve

Visit castles in England

Leeds Castle in England, one of the many castles we explored

Ride on a two decker bus in London
See Monet's Waterlily's in person

Monet's waterlilies in Musee de l'Orangie in France

See the Mona Lisa in person

The Original Mona Lisa behind a force field in the Louvre in Paris

Go to a Radiohead concert
Get drunk in a pub in Ireland

Drinking in Dublin

Experience living in a village in a developing country

In a villiage in Sumatra

Make a positive difference in the world

Teaching a class in Indonesia how to use a program to monitor endangered species habitat use

Make goat cheese from my own goat milk
Learn how to play upright bass
Go to an Opera
Go exploring in Alaska
Hike in Switzerland
Visit Mont Saint Michelle
Share a plate of spaghetti in Italy with my lover
Make love on a mountaintop

Speckled Mountain ;)

Try surfing in Hawaii
Take a photography course
Practice yoga in India
See Anne of Green Gable's house on Prince Edward Island

The house Anne of Green Gables house

Build an eco-friendly house
Learn how to knit
Study abroad

Studying the heathland ecosystem in England

Go to graduate school

My classmates at DICE (MSc Conservation Biology)

Grow my own food

Green beans from our garden

Raise a puppy
Raise a kitten

Pi and Theta, always there to help me study in college and beyond

Learn how to Lindy Hop (better)
Rest my head on my husband lap while he reads and I am pregnant
Stay up all night to beat a video game
Learn some Latin
Volunteer at an animal shelter
Have a library in my house
Make a secret garden in my yard
Walk on the White Cliffs of Dover

Robbie and I walking along the White Cliffs of Dover

Visit the Rose Theater in London (The theater Shakespeare preformed in)

Rose Theater in London

See a play in London
Volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation place
Drink a cosmopolitan in New York City
Fly in first class
Learn how to play guitar better
Learn how to play piano better
Play clarinet or tenor sax in a band again as an adult
Learn how to identify most bird calls
Hike the Presidential Traverse
Go to Australia
Go to Indonesia

In Sumatra, Indonesia

Eat crepes in France

Eating a banana and chocolate crepe in Paris

Learn a French lullaby to song to my baby
Help someone else birth a baby
Successfully homeschool my children
Hike mount Washington with a baby on my back

Hiking up Mount Washington with Meo (12 months old)

Go punting in Cambridge, England

Punting in Cambridge, England

Explore the Irish countryside

Chasing Robbie through a field in Ireland

 

Be a teacher

Teaching at Wolfe's Neck Farm; one of my many teaching positions

Be a scientist

Studying the threatened Great Crested Newt in England; one of many scientist positions I've had

Marry my best friend 

Married June 9, 2007