I started a blog as a virtual scrapbook of my goal to complete forty things on my bucket list before turning forty years old. For the three years I worked on “my 40 before 40” bucket list, I was focused on continuously adding fun adventures to my life. While I had done many bucket-worthy things in my life (married, kids, college, Master’s degree, helicopter ride over a volcano, visiting Hawaii, obstacle course race, being in the same room as the President of the US), many of these things happened by chance, not out of actively making them happen.  I realized that while I had many goals in my life, I was putting many of them off until the undefined “later.”

As I near my 40th birthday with many of these adventures under my belt, I realized that through my 40 before 40 list, I aroused many passions. I want to travel more. I want to write more. I want to spend more time outdoors. I want adventure in life. I want to try new things. Above all, I want to be an example to my son that his mom can work full-time and be an awesome mother and wife, but she still have her own dreams and goals that she is accomplishing . Further, I had built the confidence to know that I could accomplish most anything I put my mind to.

So while I celebrate the many goals I achieved by age 40, I have a new goal: I want to keep checking things off my ever-growing bucket list, and I want die with an emtpy bucket list. Full life, empty bucket.