My Bucket List

This post has been in my drafts for a while now, but I thought it would be appropriate to finally post since today is my 20th birthday!

I don't know when I started thinking of things to put on my bucket list, but I've come up with a plethora of things since. It's fun to keep a bucket list helps you try to do fun and exciting things. I will be updating this as time goes on, crossing things off as well as adding new things.

Sports

• attend an elite gymnastics meet (completed in May 2012)
• attend an Olympic Games
• attend an Artistic Gymnastics World Championships
• attend an FIG World Cup event (completed March 3, 2018)

• attend an NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships
• attend an NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships
• attend an NCAA Women's Gymnastics Regional Championship (completed April 1, 2017)
• attend an NCAA Women's Gymnastics conference championship (preferably Big Tens)
• attend a regular season NCAA women's gymnastics meet
• attend a regular season NCAA men's gymnastics meet
• attend a JO meet (completed March 2, 2018)
• attend a non-artistic gymnastics competition

• meet an Olympian (Shawn Johnson, completed in February 2014, Justin Spring in 2015, Jenny and Monica Rokhman in March 2017, Kyla Ross and Nancy Thies Marshall in April 2017, Nastia Liukin in May 2017)
• meet one of my favorite NCAA gymnasts (Alina Weinstein, completed in February 2015)
  



Me with Illinois alum and All American gymnast Alina Weinstein

• meet an elite gymnast (Nica Hults, completed in August 2014)
• meet my favorite gymnasts ever, Sarah Finnegan and Nastia Liukin (Nastia Liukin, completed in May 2017)
• learn to do a handstand
• learn to do a back handspring or some sort of salto
• do the splits
• try surfing
• meet an action sports athlete (Andy Macdonald; Greg Lutzka; Kelvin Hoefler; Manny Santiago; completed in June 2015)
• meet my favorite action sports athlete, Ryan Sheckler
• attend an action sports event (Dew Tour, completed in June 2015)
• attend a professional skateboarding contest
• attend a professional surfing contest
• attend a professional volleyball game/tournament
• attend an NBA game (completed in January 2014)

Joakim Noah goes for the dunk in a regular season game against the Charlotte Bobcats on January 11, 2014, the first Bulls game I attended.

Travel

• get a passport (completed summer of 2014)
• travel outside of the U.S. (Canada, completed sometime around 1996)

  

  In front of Niagara Falls in July 2014, the last time I was in Canada and the only time I remember being there

• travel outside of the North American continent
• go to the Philippines
• go to Australia
• go to at least five foreign countries
• go somewhere in Europe
• go to Florida (completed June 2015)
• go to Disney World (completed June 2015)
• go to New York (completed June 2017)
• go to Hawaii

Career

• get an internship with some sort of media company related to gymnastics (completed in August 2013 with Inside Gymnastics)
• sit at press row at a USA Gymnastics meet (completed in August 2014)
• get a full-time job doing what I love
• have an article published in a newspaper or magazine (completed in March 2017: April issue of Inside Gymnastics)
• have an article published online that was not self-published (completed in October 2013 for Inside Gymnastics' website)

Amusement/Entertainment/Other

• go to a trampoline park
• go to Cedar Point
• attend a professional ballet performance (completed in December 2016: Champaign Urbana Ballet presents The Nutcracker)
• attend a Ballet West show
• watch my favorite dancer Chelsie Hightower dance in person
• watch Misty Copeland dance in person
• go to a concert (completed in November 2016)
• go to a music festival
• inspire someone and make an impact on his/her life

There are some pretty lofty goals as well as some very reasonable and reachable ones on here as well. It's important to be realistic but also dream big at the same time. That way, there is always something to strive for and accomplish with the life you've been blessed with.

What things are on your bucket list? Do we share any of the same things? Tell me about your experiences with crossing things off your bucket list, and feel free to ask for the reasoning behind anything on the list.