Hello, everyone, and welcome to my brand new personal blog. Before I begin, I want to give credit 100% to the photographer who took the photo that is displayed in my main website header, provided by Pixabay. 

With that said, you may wonder what this blog is going to be about, and I’m happy to tell you. As humans, we all go through hurdles in life, and have some bad experiences. We also make countless mistakes, and regret countless decisions when we look back on our lives, and then cue in the all-famous, “What if …?” However, this blog won’t be about mistakes. It won’t be about regrets regarding poor decisions. This blog is going to be about exciting adventures with new memories to make; after all, our lives are but a few, brief moments in time, so why not make the most of the beauty this life offers? I was looking over my Bucket List this past week and realized I have completed just a little over 1/4 of my list of 200 items of places to travel and things to do – locally, nationally, and all around the world.

Wow! Over 1/4 completed already? That’s amazing! How can I get more stuff checked off? It’s simple, really.

I’m going to start off with the simpler stuff, the more important stuff first, which is all stuff that I can complete locally or here at home before I go on any crazy and expensive journeys that I have on my bucket list (which I have to save up for, after I finish saving up for my next set of hearing aids, which you can read about further in this post). As of this moment, I am working on publishing a Suspense Thriller fiction book, Broken, but that’s actually in the hands of my publisher. They consult with me and get my approval before moving to each next stage of the whole publishing process, but because it’s mostly in their hands, it leaves me waiting (patiently and gleefully if I may add) on my end for the professionals to complete their job. It’s a truly exciting experience for me, because even though I’ve been writing for 15 years, this is the first time I’m actually publishing anything for sale (this life goal of mine is ranked #4 on my Bucket List of 200 Adventures and Places to Travel). However, while I’m waiting and thinking about my bucket list, I realized there’s a crucial part to my life’s journey on this earth that I should complete before even going on any more adventures away from home.

What is this crucial part, you may ask? Why, it’s my Living Will, Last Will and Testament, and life insurance policy, of course!  I may only be 30 years old, and it’s true that most people my age don’t really need to think about these things unless they’re terminally ill; I, however, have some super crazy items on my list that I am determined to cross off my bucket list, but are considered dangerous (i.e. Stratosphere Sky Jump in Las Vegas [#73 on my Bucket List of 200 Adventures and Places to Travel] and bungee jumping on the Bridge of Valgadena at Altopiano di Asiago, which is in Vicenza, Italy [#181 on my Bucket List of 200 Adventures and Places to Travel]). I would feel much better going on any of those worldwide trips knowing that at home, I have something in place for my loved ones, if in the event my time should be cut short on my travels – and truthfully, it never hurts to have these items in place, because truly, our number could be up, for tomorrow is not and will never be promised! With that said, I have already completed the life insurance policy portion of this bucket list item from a while ago, but I am actively working on my Living Will, as well as my Last Will and Testament (#1 on my Bucket List of 200 Adventures and Places to Travel).

You may have already noticed that two of my items on the bucket list have made their way into this post, and they’re the same type of dangerous activity – bungee jumping. I once lived in San Diego California, from May 2009 to April 2011, and in my first summer out there I went bungee jumping at the San Diego County Fair (#184 on my Bucket List of 200 Adventures and Places to Travel). I want to say it was about 120ft in the air, but it could be 125 or 130. All I remember was the experience itself, being taken up that high in the air in a small box with the lift operator (or whatever it is they do). I had every intention of just letting myself fall freely forward from the box, arms spread wide open with my eyes closed, and the feeling I got immediately after was just absolutely and literally breath-taking.

However, I was angry that the operator decided for me by pushing me off without my consent, yet I think he thought I was doing the same thing as the previous customer regarding delaying my jump. She was a woman who had gone before me and stalled the operation by about 5-10 minutes, because she was afraid to jump. As I think back, I can understand why the operator thought I might have been stalling, because I was putting my BTE (behind-the-ear) hearing aids into my jeans pockets. For those of you reading this who do not know, I am a Hard-of-Hearing individual who has lost most of her hearing by the age of four because of repeated, untreated ear infections, but I can hear most normally with my hearing aids in. I thought I would be fine keeping them in my ears for the jump, but at the last second before I jumped, I realized I might lose them along the fall down, which I didn’t want to risk (because hearing aids are super expensive, and about 99% of insurance companies don’t cover them for adults), so I ended up taking them out and stuffing them into my (thankfully) super tight pockets.

After the jump (or push if you want to get technical lol), I felt the most amazing feeling. Even until this very moment, there is almost nothing that compares to that exhilarating rush of adrenaline, that moment where you’re putting your entire life into the hands of God (or, for those of you who do not believe in God, you might say in the hands of a bungee cord). The only thing that even remotely compares is the peace and stillness I feel every time I’m underwater (hint, hint for more items from my bucket list that will be revealed in a later post, haha). However, you still can’t really compare the two experiences, as they are completely different, and have their own feelings that come with them. Most people would just bungee jump once to get it over with, and say they’ve done it and crossed it off their bucket list, but every time I think of going on a crazy adventure, I can’t help but think about finding a place in my new adventure to go on yet another bungee jumping activity. For me it’s like swimming and horseback riding and zip lining, something I want to do over, and over, and over again, and if I go some place and have that opportunity to jump, I will absolutely take it in a heartbeat!

Truly I’m excited to be starting a blog about my adventures no matter where I go or what I do from my bucket list, because I want to record the memories, and share them with everyone I love and care about. This will mean eventually sharing pictures and videos with each appropriate blog entry. I’m sorry I don’t have a video of me bungee jumping for the first time, as I used to have one, but the owner of the video is someone who was once, but no longer is, available to give it to me. However, even though I may not be able to show you my first experience with bungee jumping, you will in time see me on other bungee jumping adventures that I have planned on my list. Until my next post, however, may peace and love and happiness be with you in all aspects of your life!  ^_^