A Journey to Purpose: My Bucket List Challenge

Overcoming Life’s Challenges

Hi friends,

It’s been a little while–thank you for your patience and continued support. The past few months have been incredibly tough, and I wanted to be honest about why I have been quiet.

Earlier this spring, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, which turned our world upside down. Thankfully, I’m beyond grateful to say she is now in remission–a huge relief and a major victory! Around the same time, my sweet dog was also wrongfully diagnosed with cancer, and while I am thankful that turned out not to be true, it put me through a rollercoaster of fear, sadness, and helplessness.

To be honest, I felt low. Lost, even. Everything I’d built my world around suddenly felt fragile. But those, long, quiet, and emotional days gave me space to reflect on my life–on where I’ve been and where I want to go.

In college, I had the privilege of living out so many of my childhood dreams. I traveled the world, worked for my dream softball team, and soaked up experiences that most people only imagine. However, once those dreams became memories, I realized…I didn’t really know what I was working toward anymore.

Finding Inspiration

Finding your inspiration again can be a daunting task, and I’ve be struggling with it for 4 years. And then, in one of those late-night doom scrolls, a TikTok changed everything. It was about the Camino de Santiago–a pilgrimage across Spain that people walk for all kinds of reasons: healing, clarity, spirituality, purpose.

I became obsessed.

I watched video after video, learning about the journey, the challenges, and the transformation that people experience. Something about it called to me. Deeply.

You see, I’ve struggled with religion for a while now, but in this moment of uncertainty, something in me said, you need this. Not just the walk–but the journey to finding purpose again.

And so, I decided it’s time to set new goals. To give myself something to reach for. Something that lights me up again. Happy Yourself, that’s the whole point, right?

⚡Enter: My Bucket List Challenge.

I’ve always kept a mental list of things I wanted to do “someday,” but never actually wrote them down. That ends today. I’m sharing my bucket list with y’all as part of this new chapter, and my goal is to check of 30 things by my 30th birthday. Some big. Some small. All meaningful.

I would love for you to follow along, cheer me on, and share what’s on your bucket list!

Life can throw us curveballs, but I truly believe we find our joy again when we choose to go looking for it.

Here’s to chasing dreams, finding purpose, and always remembering to Happy Yourself.

Love, Jane.

My Ultimate Bucket List

1. Complete the Camino de Santiago
2. Get SCUBA certified
3. Learn to speak Dutch
4. Complete Kumano Kodo
5. Visit Devil’s Pool-Victoria Falls
6. Take a paddleboat to the middle of Lake Bled
7. Visit all 7 wonders of the world (2/7 complete)
8. Visit Antarctica
9. Visit all 7 continents (4/7 complete)
10. Take a hot air balloon ride in Turkey
11. Swim with the pigs in the Bahamas
12. Go canyoning
13. See the Northern Lights

1. Snorkel/dive the Great Barrier Reef
2. Go white water Rafting
3. Visit all 50 states (26/50)
4. Take a gondola ride in Italy
5. Do a VIP tour at Disney
6. Visit every Disney Park
7. Take a cooking class in Italy
8. Publish a book
9. Run a 5k
10. Run a 10k
11. Run a half marathon
12. Run a marathon
13. Take the Glacier Express train
14. Visit Banff National Park
15. Visit the Catacombs
16. Visit Blue lagoon
17. La tomatina festival-Spain
18. Carnival-Brazil
19. Visit New Orleans for Mardi Gras
20. Visit Niagra Falls
21. Visit Mauritius
22. Go to Oktoberfest
23. Drive Route 66
24. Stomp grapes
25. Fierljeppen-Netherlands
26. Float in the Dead Sea
27. Visit the Cliffs of Moher
28. Visit Stonehenge
29. Visit Auschwitz
30. Visit Edinburgh
31. Visit the Pearl Harbor museum
32. Visit the Galapagos
33. Visit a Christmas market in Germany
34. Visit Angkor Watt
35. Visit the Parthenon
36. Experience a full day of darkness
37. Experience a full day of light
38. Audition for a play
39. See a show on Broadway
40. Visit Giethoorn-Netherlands
41. Visit Cuba
42. Visit Dracula’s castle-Transylvania
43. Do dog sledding on ice
44. Salt deprivation tank float
45. Stay in a capsule hotel
46. See bioluminescence
47. Go naked at a nudist beach
48. Eat pizza in Italy
49. See the leaning Tower of Pisa
50. See the cherry blossoms in Japan
51. Eat a croissant in France
52. Eat a macron in France
53. Hike the Dolomites
54. See a Haka performance live
55. Go to a Luau
56. Eat authentic hotpot
57. Eat authentic Dim Sum
58. Go to a rodeo
59. Visit the Singapore airport
60. Cruise Ha Long Bay
61. See a polar bear in its natural habitat
62. Go to a Highland Games in Scotland
63. St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland
64. King’s Day in Amsterdam
65. See the Tulip’s in the Netherlands
66. Desert surfing
67. Visit a black sand beach
68. Train street-Vietnam
69. Visit Hoi An
70. Go to an adult summer camp
71. Swim in a cenote
72. ATV through a jungle or rainforest
73. Bathe an elephant
74. Visit Joshua Tree
75. See a Cirque du Soleil show
76. Learn how to take photos
77. Join Club 33-Disney
78. Get paid to travel
79. No credit card debt
80. Eat at a Michelin star restaurant
81. Visit Salem during Halloween
82. Visit Hocking Hills
83. Get invited on a yacht in Monaco
84. Visit Petra
85. See a sumo wrestling match
86. Learn to ski
87. Do a street food tour in Osaka
88. Visit borough market-London
89. Do the Wild Africa Trek at Disney
90. Learn to ski or snowboard
91. Get a tattoo in another country
92. Get a a stick and poke tattoo

Share your bucket list items in the comments!