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Bucket Lists

Chinh Chinh

It's a scary experience growing up and learning to be independent once you leave home for college. And even now, I feel like I'm still learning. Adulting is never done. It's also hard when you're the oldest of your siblings so you don't have someone older to ask. I was the one who had to pave the way for them so I had to make all the mistakes in order to learn. But experience isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just tough when you're learning a new thing and how to take care of yourself. Like applying for college when you're a first generation immigrant. Figuring out student loans, repayment, and other financial hurdles. Insurance. Buying cars. Buying a house. 401ks. Planning a wedding on your own. Driving somewhere new and having to figure out where you're supposed to be going. Meal prepping. Learning to cook and plan out your week. Grocery shopping properly and not just junk food. It's a lot. There's no manual and everyone learns at their own pace and comfortability.

I also never traveled in college because I felt boggled down by school work and personally for me, I just felt like it wasn't doable with my school workload. Plus I honestly didn't know how to travel on my own or anything, being so sheltered growing up and restricted from doing much because Asian overprotective parents. This was good and bad. Bad because I honestly didn't know how to do much on my own and good because it forced me to learn to do it all on my own since my parent couldn't exactly teach me a lot of the above.

I made a traveling bucket list in 2014, my life pre-breaking out of my CVS chains. I barely took vacations during my CVS days because basically when you work for CVS, they own your soul. You couldn't ask for a day off, let alone a vacation because they are just so terribly incompetent with their scheduling. It's also a very selfish company; even when I was away on vacation, they would still call me and bother me when it was my time off. Can you believe they even asked me if I could work the day of my wedding?! My friends and family barely ever saw me because CVS ate up so much of my time and energy. Post CVS, I've done so much more living, honestly. Looking back on my traveling bucket list, I still haven't made a dent but I definitely have changed my mind on a lot of places, and find myself adding new places, while getting rid of places. Here is my revised list for this point in time in my life. 

Traveling bucket list

Places I want to visit/travel/explore/go on an adventure before I have to be a parent/die/end of my life.

  • Europe

  1. Paris *
  2. London
  3. Italy (Venice, Milan, Rome)
  4. Barcelona
  5. Greece (Athens, Santorini)
     

  • Asia

  1. Japan * 
  2. Hong Kong
  3. Vietnam *
  4. Bali
  5. Singapore
  6. Bangkok
  7. India

  • Africa

  1. Egypt
  2. I don't know exactly which parts but I would love to go on a safari trip in South Africa.

  • America

  1. California *
  2. Hawaii 
  3. Las Vegas
  4. Grand Canyon
  5. Boston *

  • Tropical islands

  1. Bora Bora (mostly for a bungalow over the water but now I see you can do this in Jamaica so maybe Jamaica instead?)
  2. St Bart's
  3. Bahamas*
  4. Bermuda
  5. Antigua
  6. Aruba


Obviously realistically I don't think I'll be able to do this whole list but I would love to do as much as I can. The ones I have starred, I've traveled to already and would love to make a return trip back. I've also made it a goal to try ice cream in every new place I visit. 

And yes, Disney is not on this list because Disney is a separate list all its own. I want to visit every Disney castle around the world and so far, I'm actually only missing one now - Hong Kong. I'm hoping to conquer this one when I finally make my second pilgrimage back to Vietnam and hopefully visit on a layover like I did with Shanghai when I went to Japan. 

Disney Bucket List

  1. Disney World - Florida *
  2. Disneyland - California *
  3. Tokyo Disneyland / DisneySea  - Japan *
  4. Shanghai Disneyland *
  5. Paris Disneyland *
  6. Hong Kong Disneyland

And the rest aren't travel bucket lists, but just stuff I want to eventually do in my lifetime. 

Long term goals/bucket list

  1. See a Broadway show, ballet, opera * (opera is the last one I have yet to do!)
  2. Learn to drive manual
  3. Learn to ride a motorcyle
  4. Be a Disney AP holder one day
  5. Run a 5k, 10k, half and eventually full marathon one day
  6. Learn self photography with a DSLR
  7. Learn to cook more Vietnamese dishes
  8. Live in another city/state/country
  9. Grow old with the boy ❤️ 

Do you have any bucket list places you want to visit or goals you want to accomplish before you die?