I know this might sound strange, but I don’t subscribe to the bucket list idea.
The idea of creating this list of things to do before you die has been around for a while now and especially in the blogging world, it’s really taken root. I began thinking about this a few weeks ago and actually wrote this post en route to Hawaii last month but it’s taken me a while to get it right before posting. After I saw Bailey’s similar post last week, I was even more encouraged to post my take on the bucket list idea because I have a lot of thoughts on the matter. So after multiple drafts, here’s why I don’t believe in Bucket Lists…
Sometimes it seems the travel blogging world is just full of counting how many countries you’ve been to and how many points you’ve checked off your list and I have a hard time with that for many different reasons. I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve lived overseas and when it comes down to it, I really couldn’t give you a number of countries I’ve set foot in mainly because I’ve never sat down to figure it out. I couldn’t tell you which places have been bucket list items because I’ve never had a bucket list, just a curiosity and a passion to see the world we call home and live each day I have to the fullest. I’ve never subscribed to the idea that there are a definite number of things I have to do and see before I die or that if I never see the Great Wall of China, my life wouldn’t have been complete. I subscribe to the idea that while yes, there are definitely an abstract number of places that are on my mind that I’d love to see and experience in years to come, but I feel like sometimes the idea of just checking things off a list does an injustice to the idea of travel and exploration in general.
I’m not saying this to go against anyone who loves checking things off a list or lives by the idea of a bucket list, but for me personally, I believe that experiences while traveling that come up randomly, places that inspire you that you never thought would, living in the moment while exploring an unknown place or a place not on your list…those things you can’t necessarily plan for and often just happen while traveling. Those are the things in my experience that are so much more important and so much more worthwhile than having a box to check.
Some of my favorite things I’ve experienced while traveling haven’t been those bucket list items that everyone has like the Taj Mahal or seeing the Eiffel Tower. Those monuments aren’t necessarily the best things to see in the world and are often not as incredible as the lesser known spots that you might skip in order to make it to your bucket list items. For some, places like the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower would be made a priority specifically for a bucket list item to check off, but for me, a place like Udaipur (a lesser known city in India) or the lesser known parts of Paris have been much more substantial and life changing experiences and could potentially be left off a travel itinerary in search of those places everyone knows about.
And so here in lies the rub. Bucket lists in general can serve a purpose to help us get to places in the world, they can push us forward and help us establish goals but there is so much more to the world that just checking boxes off a list of places everyone wants to see or counting the countries you’ve visited. It’s often the unknowns, the places like Udaipur or the back alleys of Paris that are more worthwhile for your life journey, that will show you more beauty and inspiration than many of the boxes on a bucket list. Checking boxes and counting countries is fine if it works for you, but also remember to treat each box as more than just a square on paper. Each place on that list is also a vibrant culture and memorable moments, they are people and places and experiences and sometimes in an effort to get as many checked boxes and see as much as possible in our lives, we forget to look around and take in all the things that are unknown and possibly more important.
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Bailey K. says
I love your perspective. I pretty much agree with all of it. I get really annoyed with “country counters”. Not necessarily people who say “I’ve been to this many countries” but people who go to a country just to cross it off their list and never go to it again because they want to go to as many countries as possible. It really bugs me! I understand wanting to go everywhere (because that’s exactly what I want to do, haha), but to go somewhere just to SAY that they’ve gone there is horrible to me. I think those people are missing out on what it really means to travel and have wonderful, meaningful, and memorable experiences.
Casey says
I am with you on the “counting.” I always feel it does such a disservice to those places, like they aren’t beautiful, wonderful countries full of people and places and are more worthwhile than just being a number on a list. Thank you for your comment and for your lovely post as well!
Sofie says
I completely agree with this. While I love exploring new places, traveling to the same place over and over again to really experience daily life like a local is so much more satisfying for me. I know I’ll always travel to new places out of simple curiosity, so I focus my energy on building a community in the places I’ll go again and again. I’ve checked off a lot of the “typical” bucket list places, but not on purpose. I see so many people saying they want to “do Europe” and then they spend like a day in each big city. To me, that’s no way to live. You’ll spend the whole time looking through a camera when you could take a couple weeks in one place and get to know the actual culture beneath the facade.
Casey says
I love that you brought up this point, because I totally agree with you. I love revisiting favorite places, it’s one of my favorite things about traveling, to see places over and over and experience something new in them. And as you said, just hitting the major spots and doing only tourist things there, for me, isn’t really traveling. That’s being a tourist. I actually love that even though I’ve been through some places around the world many times, that I’ve not done everything in those places because it’s a process and a journey over time. Thank you so much for your comment!
Ace CB says
I share your sentiments – some of the best things I’ve come across traveling have been by chance. I have a travel “wish list” but I don’t feel like it’s absolutely essential that I do everything on it in order to have a fulfilling life, and I’ve been impacted by things in my travel that weren’t planned or trips that weren’t my idea. Lovely post.
Casey says
Totally. Some of the most profound things in the world aren’t going to be on a typical bucket list. I too have a “wish list” but like you said, if I don’t make it to certain places, that’s ok, knowing that I saw so many other incredible things instead of making sure a few boxes got checked. Thanks for your sentiments… I couldn’t agree more!
Sarah @ New Wave Domesticity says
This is a really great and thoughtful perspective. I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept lately and this is really well-written and articulate as a counter point to my natural instinct. I think I really like making lists in general…I like dreaming of certain places and setting certain goals and task for myself because it keeps me motivated. I think though that you make a great point about how maybe those lists make me a little short-sighted about traveling. I go, I have a list of this, this, and this that I must see, but I worry that sets me up to miss things or also to be disappointed if I have an amazing trip but didn’t do the XYZ on my bucket list. I think there can be a balance between both ideas…I just need to find it! Thanks for your insight! <3 Also, have you seen this: https://medium.com/human-parts/has-travel-becoming-another-exercise-in-narcissism-bfb3ccbcdc3a – really interesting!
Casey says
First of all, thank you for the link to that article… just read it and I couldn’t agree more! And secondly, I totally agree with you… I love making lists and even on trips I definitely have itineraries and such, but, and that’s a huge BUT, if I don’t want to see a major landmark in a certain place or it just doesn’t happen, I also feel like that’s totally ok and doesn’t take away from experiencing a place. I love your point of view on this… there can always be a balance.
Melinda DiOrio says
Hi Casey, I couldn’t agree more! This post was so wonderful, that I had to go back and give it a second read. I’m anti-bucket lists myself, and for just the same reasons that you described. I’m glad you mentioned that they are a great jumping-off point to get places in the world, because I can see why people would make them for that reason. I just appreciate anywhere I have the opportunity to go – be it Paris, France or St Louis, Missouri. Every place has it’s potential for amazing experiences, and if you’re just out to “check places off a list”, you may be missing out on the real deal.
Casey says
Thank you so much! I totally think they are great to have as a jumping off for exactly as you said, it makes people go see the world. But you’re so right, wherever it is, even places close to home, it’s an opportunity be able to see anywhere.
Cynthia says
I largely agree…. while I am one of those list-making types, I do it to help organize myself and remember where I’d like to go rather than make a definitive list. Plus, I think one’s tastes (at least mine do!) for where the next trip will be change pretty often, so I don’t want to be limited to the place I wrote down on a list three years ago even though I have another place in mind. It helps also that my fiance haaaates the term so it’s pretty much banished from our household 😉
Casey says
I’m totally a list maker too… in everything and I think it’s a great organization tool. But like you said, it’s not definitive and it can change. The places that are on my “list” change all the time and others move in and out so like you said, bucket lists tend to limit what’s important and what’s not and that’s what I don’t like.
Esther says
I do make lists, but only on a day to day basis. Nothing of the ‘large things’. Over the last few years I have lost some people close to me who didn’t even make it to 60. There’s just one thing to do and that’s live now.
Casey says
Me too… and as you said, it really is important to just live each day to the fullest and not worry about what you did or missed. Life is today.
Kristin says
I love making lists, and I have a dozen different “bucket lists” going, but they’re more a collection of ideas, things I’ve stumbled across and thought would be fun to experience, random goals, and maybe just a list-form Pinterest board of inspiration rather than things I think I need to do in order to feel complete. The ones we make the most use of are our home tourist bucket lists, lists of things my husband and I really want to do in our current location before we move. I find that if we list them down, we actually plan for them and make time for them. It’s easy to let time get away otherwise.
Casey says
I’m totally with you on making lists… I keep many in various places! And I so agree that it can help to plan and such, the problem I have is when those lists create this sense that if you don’t do one thing, a life hasn’t been lived or missing out on other things because we have to narrow down a list. Lists aren’t bad… it’s when they become a definitive “have to do this” that I’m not sure is worthwhile.