40 Before 40

February 17, 2019

Learn to drive manual.
Visit Hong Kong Disneyland (last Disney on my bucket list.)
Be a WDW annual passholder at least once in my life.
Pay off my student loans.
Build my savings account again like how I did when I was saving for my wedding.
Transition back to my dark hair. Slowly. Very slowly. Grow back healthy virgin hair.
Dig myself out of debt.
Learn to swim. (I know it’s embarassing that I don’t know how to swim at 30 but ask almost any person. We don’t know how to swim, lol.)
Volunteer/mentor.
Run a full marathon (Then the Dopey challenge possibly one day.)
Learn to cook more Vietnamese dishes.
Muster up enough courage to do a real zipline.
Continue good exercise and diet habits. My goal is to still be under 120 lbs by the time I reach 40. I’m still so embarassed I let myself spiral to 130 before I reached 30.
Go skiing/snowboarding.
Hike/Climb a mountain.
Fly first class.
Learn Japanese or French.
Buy an adult car (get rid of Camaro and get a winter-friendly, more responsible and sensible car for family matters.)
Grow a garden of my favorite flowers.
Buy a Dior bag.
Have a kid maybe.
Be a part of a movement/support a cause.
Figure out what your dream job is.
Learn more about Vietnamese history and culture.
Sponsor a child.
Write letters to a penpal for a year.
Read more books.
Vacation in Bora Bora in an overwater bungalow.
Learn photography.
Write hand-written notes to the people who are important to me.
De-clutter my life and stay clutter and mess free. Get rid of things I don’t use/wear/need anymore.
Get a pet (not fish).
Buy a piece of original art.
Write a will.
Plant a cherry blossom tree.
Appreciate the hell out of every passing day.
Learn to take a compliment (I’m terrible and awkward af at this) and give more compliments.
Take better care of my skin to prevent wrinkles and signs of aging.
Become a morning person. Go to bed earlier and wake up earlier.
Become a better version of me.

Bucket Lists

August 12, 2018

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

Paris *
London
Italy (Venice, Milan, Rome)
Barcelona
Greece (Athens, Santorini)

Asia

Japan *
Hong Kong
Vietnam *
Bali
Singapore
Bangkok
India

Africa

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

America

California *
Hawaii
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon
Boston *

Tropical islands

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