I have a question for all of my readers: Do you have anything on your bucket list that is there for no comprehensible reason?
If my question makes no sense, I won’t be surprised. Let me back up a little bit and explain why I ask. Years ago — almost eleven years ago, to be exact — something found its way onto my bucket list for no good reason.
I randomly decided one day that I wanted to run a marathon in Dublin, Ireland.
At the time, I was hardly a runner, let alone anywhere near to being a marathoner. In fact, the idea of going on a long run sounded rather boring and unappealing. And at the time I also didn’t even know if Dublin had a marathon.
I was studying abroad in London for a semester during my undergraduate program, and a friend and I were spending a weekend in Dublin. As I walked along the banks of the River Liffey one sunny April day, the following thought randomly popped into my head:
“Hmm. I think I shall run a marathon here one day. Yep. It’s settled. One day I’ll do that.”
Luckily for me, there is in fact a Dublin marathon which takes place each fall.
And that, my friends, is how running the Dublin marathon very randomly made its way to my bucket list, literally five years before I even began running at all, and nearly ten years before I ever did my first full marathon.
Today, of course, the fact that running the Dublin Marathon is on my bucket list makes far more sense, but at the time of its joining my bucket list, there was really no good reason for it to be there. It would be like someone who has no affinity for creative writing randomly declaring that writing a fiction novel is on their bucket list. It’s not as though I was an avid recreational runner at the time, and it’s also not as though the Dublin Marathon is some famous premier affair like Boston or London or New York.
All of this is to say that, a month or so ago, I mentioned this random bucket list item to my husband in passing, and he said, “Well, why not do it in 2017?”
So, here we are, now actively planning a holiday to Ireland in late October so that I can mark this bad boy off my bucket list! I’ve been to Ireland twice now, including all around the countryside as well, but my husband has never been, so we’ll get to kill two birds with one stone.
So I am curious, does anyone else out there have something on their bucket list that got there quite randomly?
Until next time,
xoxo Charlotte
That sounds a wonderful trip. Even though i live in the UK I have only got to Ireland once and that was to Dublin…just for the day. Caught the ferry from Holyhead in Wales and basically didn’t get to fit much in except a tour of the Jameson wisky distillary, half a guiness and I did watch a bit of a river swimming race. As for my bucket list, I do have a few things on it that i’m not terribly excited about. Cooking a Sunday roast and learning to crochet. I hopefully will do them though. Good luck with your trip. X
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Dublin is really a beautiful city. Granted, it’s been going on ten years since I’ve last been, but on my two trips there I really loved the scenery, architecture, and food. I didn’t realize they had a Jameson distillary there. I’ll have to remember that, as my husband might enjoy that. (I only drink wine, and I doubt there are any vineyards to tour there 😉 ). Cooking a Sunday roast is a great bucket list item! And crocheting is quite therapeutic – I think you’ll enjoy it. x
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I hope so. A friend has organized for us to go on a half day learn to crochet course. 🙂
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I taught myself both knitting and crocheting a few years ago, and personally I found crocheting to be a lot easier with just the one needle.
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There’s not much that’s really random per se on my bucket list… I want to go to the Netherlands and Taiwan… and I keep thinking about sky diving eventually but I doubt I’ll ever actually work up the nerve for that!
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Oh, I hear you on the skydiving! In theory I’d love to say it’s on my bucket list, but really, I am too much of a chicken to ever jump out of a plane.
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This is really all about Guinness Beers at the finish line, right?
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Haha! The funny thing is, I hate beer so much. They should have an option for champagne instead 😉
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Want to pack me in your suitcase??? I LOVED Ireland dream every day about making back to the corner of the world. I think you had a vision into your future, or you knew you would be a runner before it actually happened!! CRAZY!!
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I’d totally bring you if I could!!! There needs to be like some blogger meetup in a really cool part of the world. That, and I need a ton of money to travel all the time haha!!
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YES!!!!!!
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YEEESSSSSSS
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and* was supposed to make it in there somewhere…
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It’s funny that we both did bucket list posts over the weekend.
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I was thinking the same thing! And another blogger I follow did as well.
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Weird. Maybe we should start a bucket list day each year and get all bloggers to publish their bucket lists
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[…] Over a strong cup of much needed coffee, we started hashing out plans for our Ireland trip this autumn for me to run the Dublin Marathon. If you didn’t catch Monday’s post about this bucket list item, here it is! […]
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Having lived my whole life on the UK mainland, I have yet to make it to Ireland or any of the islands of mainland UK. I have managed to travel to far away places instead. I should add a few islands to my list.
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I know what you mean – I’ve barely been to Canada or Mexico (literally less than a day each), but I’ve spent countless holidays in Europe.
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Honestly…I don’t even have a bucket list per se. There are things I would like to do before I die for sure, but I tend to live by a “do what feels right now” sort of ideal. Hence the fervent writing and hope of getting my novel published. That’s like THE goal. I’ll take a look again once that goal is achieved. In terms of visiting places and what not, I simply don’t have the money to procrastinate over such niceties so those kinds of things are on hold until such a time as they become viable.
I hope the Dublin marathon is everything you want it to be and you feel great accomplishment once it’s done. Good on you for living that dream
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To be honest, I think there is a lot to be said for the “do what feels right now” mindset. I feel like that prerogative gets shut down too often in our current culture of obsessive planning. Anyway, I think your main goal is fantastic, and I know you will achieve — sooner than later, if I were to wager. 😉
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I agree that many seem to have a put it off until tomorrow mentality. Procrastination is a commonplace thing nowadays. I do it myself, but since making the pact with myself to really knuckle down with my writing back in October 2015 I’ve really stuck with my guns. I’ll stick with it until I reap the rewards and beyond
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You should be very proud of that dedication! I for one admire your devotion a great deal. And, as I’ve said before, I’ve no doubt you will reap those rewards sooner rather than later! If the fiction you’ve posted on your blog is any indication (which I’ve no doubt it is!), you’ll be there before you know it. 🙂
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Well I wanted to set up the blog so agents/publishers had something to search and it seems that typing Paul.E.Bailey into a Google search brings my blog right up on top. It wasn’t doing for a while, but it is now. From what I’ve read that really matters as it shows you’re already somewhat marketable. Could be nonsense though. Blogger/author advice is ten a penny and often very contradictory.
I’m glad that you genuinely like my work. I went years never showing my stories to anybody so posting fiction on here was a real leap of faith and I wasn’t sure there was a hay bail at the bottom to break my fall 😉
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+100 points for a well executed Assassins Creed reference. You want to know what’s nerdy, though? When I was halfway through reading that last sentence (before it was clear there was an AC reference), I thought about AC after I saw the phrase leap of faith. 😊
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[…] It’s official. I just signed up (and paid a hefty chunk) for my bucket list race: the 2017 Dublin […]
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