My 40+ After 40 List

While making my 40 Before 40 List, I brainstormed some additional life experiences I wanted to have but knew I would never fit into the available three years. Hence I made a second list, my 40+ After 40, which I’ll share with you today. It’s a collection of life and travel experiences I want to have sometime during this lifetime:

Life Experiences for My After 40 List

  1. Adopt a pet – check! November 23, 2019
  2. Restart Latin dance lessons
  3. Enter a ballroom competition
  4. Learn a martial art
  5. Ride in a horse-drawn carriage
  6. Attend a ball – check! LA Edwardian Ball on February 9, 2019
  7. Fly first class – check! To Hawaii June 2019
  8. Be a movie extra
  9. Take a Segway for a spin
  10. Buy or build my dream home
  11. Try SCUBA – check! September 2018
  12. Write an 80K word novel
  13. Publish a book
  14. Make mead
  15. Make wine
  16. Attend an NBA game – check! LA Clippers v. Washington Wizards December 9, 2017
  17. Attend an NHL playoff game
  18. Take a sculpture workshop
  19. See Misty Copeland perform live
  20. Go parasailing – check! In Cabo San Lucas Spring Break 2018
  21. Jump out of a plane
  22. Do a mud run
  23. Participate in a flash mob
  24. Have a 5-minute conversation in Spanish
  25. Have a 5-minute conversation in French
  26. Grow my family


Create Your Own Visited States Map

 Travel Experiences for My After 40 List

  1. Travel to all 50 states (16 to go!)
  2. Visit David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
  3. Stay at a 5-star resort – check! We stayed in a 5-star South African safari camp in September 2022
  4. Attend Mardi Gras
  5. Visit all seven continents (two to go!)
  6. Live in Europe for 6+ months—again
  7. Live in another overseas location for 3+ months
  8. Visit South Africa – check! September 2022
  9. Visit an aboriginal art center in Australia
  10. Cruise the Mediterranean
  11. Cruise and set foot on Antarctica
  12. Visit the Galapagos
  13. Play tourist in Washington, DC – see cherry blossoms, visit museums – check! August 2018
  14. Sleep in a castle
  15. Sleep in an overwater bungalow
  16. Visit Alaska – check! September 2019
  17. Take a small or private cruise
  18. Visit Caisteal Maol on the Isle of Skye, Scotland
  19. Italy! – Take a gondola ride in Venice, see the Amalfi Coast, visit Sicily, and stand inside the Sistine Chapel
  20. Ride the Rocky Mountaineer scenic train
  21. See the Northern Lights – booked for March 2023
  22. Attend the Winter Olympics
  23. See the Earth from space

40 After 40 List

What would you put on your bucket list?

Cheers,
Kate Watson

Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided courtesy of Chris Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center). Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.