NAS: Single Life Bucket List

 I’ve always been kind of a dreamer. I’ve always wanted to do big things and see the world with my life. Even as a little kid. Many times my mom kiddingly used to tell me she hopes I married rich or made a ton of money so I can buy all the things I wanted and see all the things I want to see. Obviously that hasn’t happenned yet (Dr. Smith are you reading this..I’m still single;) j/k)

I’ve always been a list maker as well. I’ve never had an “official bucket list” but in my head always had an idea of things I wanted to do with my life. But a lot of the things on this “list” weren’t things I necessarily had to do before getting married. Those commercials and people that are all “you can’t get married yet you have so much to do and see!” really annoy me because why can’t I travel with my husband or buy a new car with my husband or the other millions of things that they claim need to be done before marriage?

I remember a few years finding these tumblr bucket lists and pinterest bucket lists. So I made my own board here. The funny thing about that list is most of them I need to be married in order to do like get married, grow old with someone, adopt a child, have a son/daughter. Okay some of those you don’t need to be married but I prefer not to be a single parent. And really traveling is way more fun with company. I also have a Bucket List – DONE! Board…I actually haven’t really updated in awhile but it’s there.

Two years ago when I was going to Disney a lot and reading a lot of Disney Blogs several bloggers/podcasters were making Disney Bucket Lists so I also created a Disney bucket list. I have no idea if I’ll ever complete all the things on my list but it’s fun to try.

Sometimes I think bucket lists are good for us to just dream and think outside the box. If we don’t accomplish everything that is okay. My friend Cat and Kate last year created Catholic Bucket Lists with a lot of great things to do in terms of our faith. Many things I never really thought of before!

Then last year when I turned 27 I created a 30 before 30 list. I wrote down 30 things I wanted to do before I turned 30. So far I’ve completed 6 of them. I need to get moving if I want to finish it I guess. I have a big list of financial, spiritual, and personal goals. None of them have to be done before marriage although I hear reading books is easier to do when you’re single so maybe I should do that one. One thing that I really want to work on before I get married is to get rid of some of my debt. One of my 30 before 30 goals is to pay off 50% of my debt. That is a really sizable goal as I’m currently only working part-time and not making much. So I’m not sure that will happen but I’d love to pay off say $10,000 of it by the time I turn 30 and at least be working even harder as I approach marriage in paying the rest of it off.

For the past few years I have had a somewhat single bucket list in my head now that I have written half a post denying such a fact. And sadly it wasn’t really anything all that exciting. It was things like:

1. Learn to Cook
2. Learn to Grocery Shop
3. Learn to Coupon
4. Learn how to Save Money
5. Learn what it means to be a wife (or attempt to)
6. Try and keep house better (yeah still a work in progress on this one)
7. Learn how to be the best Beth Anne that I can be
8. Judge-less
9. Volunteer More
10. Learn more about my faith

Some of those obviously I’ll be doing for the rest of my life but a lot of them have been really good for me to do. My mom (god bless her) is boring and literally made the same 10 recipes over and over again. I like variety and I like trying out new recipes so I enjoy learning how to cook. and trying new experiments in the kitchen.

So in the end doing xyz before you get married really isn’t important many of those things you can do with your husband or significant other. I think it’s most important in this time of our lives to figure out what we want, what we like, and how to survive in this world. 

 See you next week…our topic is Deal Breakers.