My Wander List

I am deathly afraid of heights – I can’t even wear heels too high.

I have a fear of falling, particularly from heights, but of just falling in general, too.

I used to get really bad nightmares when I was living in a rooming house a couple doors down from a crack house (seriously) and developed a fear of dying alone and no one finding my body for days.

I’m pretty anxious about…well, anything – so I’m always thinking about what could go wrong.

I have this really silly habit where, rather than work my hardest at something I might fail at, I often give up before I try.

Naturally, in high school, I wrote up a bucket list and called it ‘Things to Do Before I Die’ – because I’m morbid like that.

Thanks to many of the great influences I’ve had in my life, I’ve learned to worry less about the future,  and to recognize when I’m being irrational or quitting before I’m even in the game.

Except heights and falling – falling from a height will likely kill you.

Anyways, for the above reason, I call this a Wander List instead of a bucket list. I don’t want to be motivated (or held back) by fear, like: “Oh my gad, I’m getting closer and closer to death every day!”

I want to appreciate what I’ve achieved and look forward with hope and excitement.

So, I pulled this file out of Dumbledore (my six-year old, red, Dell Inspiron laptop) so that I could share it with you, and have it here to refer to rather than deep down in the abyss of a hard drive that’s circling the drain.

Some of these are old, some new. Some recently completed, some not.

This isn’t a static list – I want and expect for it to keep growing and changing as I transform and learn more about myself, the world, and my place in it.

I do have a tattoo that says Semper Discens – Always Learning – after all…

Alyssa’s Wander List

1. Learn to Surf – Yay, Martinique!
2. Go Bungee Jumping (any suggestions on location?)
3. Step foot on every continent (3 down, 4 to go)
4. Successfully crowdsurf at a concert
5. Via Rail across Canada
6. Study yoga in India
7. Run from one country to another
8. Backpack through South America (and hopefully make Tom come with me)
9. Go Sandboarding
10. Make out in the rain – Yay, Martinique! 😉
11. Learn to play poker
12. Steal a street sign – Yay, Alan! It was a stop sign and we promptly reported it missing
13. Win the Lottery – $10 counts, right?
14. Have a hangover (I wrote most of this in high school, remember?!)
15. Go on a road trip (I completed this on a week-long road trip with my dad)
    
16. Watch the Ball drop in Times Square in person
17. Jump off a cliff – Coasteering in Wales, 2005
18. Kiss under a mistletoe
19. Write an article for a major publication – (I was published in the Globe and Mail, ya? eeee! 😀 )
20. Be in a movie
21. Swim in bioluminescent water – Trelawny, Jamaica – woohoo!
22. Go to all the Disney parks (California, Florida, Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo)
23. Eat a meal good enough to be my last
24. Go to an opera
25. Defy gravity
26. Swim with dolphins
27. Learn to juggle
28. Run a marathon
29. Live with a nomadic tribe in Africa
30. Memorize the words to La Habanera
31. Protest something important to me Drop Fees, dammit! $44k in debt 🙁
32. Learn to dance Contemporary
33. Go to Burning Man (and hopefully with Vanessa, my BFFLAEAEAALSDJFASDF)
34. Write a best-selling book
35. Do some WOOFing
36. Throw a boomerang properly
37. Surf and Yoga retreat in Costa Rica
38. Go to Morocco. Learn to cook a mean tagine. – I did ittttt! January-February 2015

That’s it for now! I mean, some of these I should be able to knock out no problem…with some motivation and dedication!

Anything you would add? What’s on your “Bucket List”?