What's in Your Bucket?

Photo by pepe nero on Unsplash

I was not raised in a family who traveled. Except for short trips to see family, we just were not a vacation family. We took one family vacation my entire life and it was an unmitigated disaster. In fact, it was such a disaster that Dad paid us kids off to quit and go home early. My first plane ride was to Colorado to start college at 17 years old. Travel and far flung places were just not a part of my life or dreams.

In my twenties, I went to the theater to see the Sydney Pollack film, “Out of Africa”. The screens were larger in those days and I was filled with wonder as Robert Redford flew Meryl Streep over the Kenyan savannah. The entire epic production captivated me. The life, the animals, the scenery - everything.

My lack of travel did not stop me from promising myself that, someday, I would go to Africa.  I wanted to see and smell and touch this magical place for myself. If anyone knew me then, they would agree this was quite the unimaginable reach for me. Ludicrous might be the best description.

Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash

Our culture did not really talk about “bucket list” things back then. But, if we had, I would have thought of going to Africa as my number one bucket list trip.

Bucket list trips are formed in many ways. Maybe you saw an image or heard a story. You might want to visit an ancestral land. Or you love baseball so much that you want to see a game in every city with a major league team. How or why these dream trips are formed does not matter. The most important thing is that it is YOURS. 

In this age of social media and constant Instagram images from around the world, one might be tempted to dream or talk about exotic locales. Bucket list trips are not about posting shots from around the world or checking a country off some “list”. These trips fulfill a dream that we may regret not doing when we find ourselves in the twilight years. They are the sort of thing that may have started as a starry eyed twenty-something dream when you realize the world is a big, amazing place, full of potential adventures.

Photo by Beth Rowan in Sabi Sands, South Africa

I did finally take myself on that trip to Africa. It was decades after that theater moment. Lots of life happened in between. And I traveled to many beautiful places in the world before I finally got myself to Africa. My trip did not include a fly over with a handsome man. But it was an epic adventure full of game drives and sundowners, cities and wildebeest migration crossings, boat rides and laughter. And so very much awe. I have memories for a lifetime.

While I am fortunate and healthy enough to continue to travel, if I had to stop tomorrow, I know that I always have Africa. That, my friends, is a bucket list trip.

What is your number one bucket list trip? And what do you have to do to make it happen? Go ahead, start dreaming, start doing what it takes. You will never, ever regret it. I promise.