Today is my 50th birthday! That’s 18,262 days if I’ve counted leap days correctly. I’ve thought about this milestone A LOT in the past year, mostly with excitement, but also with a tinge of trepidation. While I still don’t feel my age, there’s no denying that I’m getting older. My aches are achy-er, my grays are grayer, and my brain is foggier (thanks perimenopause).

Each new decade has brought more wisdom, less f—s, and an increased sense that the only person I need to please is myself — and that the best way to do that is to follow my passions. Long-time followers of my blog know that I took a sabbatical from writing midway through 2023 that lasted the rest of the year, but I didn’t just give up writing:

• My mentee graduated and with the pandemic, I didn’t get a new student.
• I’d fallen into a rut with my physical activities but dreamed of trying new things while I still could.
• I missed attending cultural events like I used to when I lived in Chicago.
• I hadn’t baked anything in years.
• I left my job at a local nonprofit and missed having a connection to my community.
• I no longer felt like I was challenging myself.

During my sabbatical, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I felt was missing from my life and how I wanted to change that. (I didn’t come up with the above list overnight.) I’m fortunate that I have a loving, supportive husband, a beautiful home in a neighborhood I adore, and a group of friends who are there when I need to lean on them. So I was able to think about what things brought me joy in the past and how I might capture that again.

Which led to:

Melanie’s 50th Bucket List

Physical

🟢 Complete a triathlon
🟢 Learn to ice skate
🟢 Ice skate backwards on one foot
🟢 Run a 5k race
🟢 Complete duathlon
⚪️ Take a hot yoga class
⚪️ Take a barre class
🟢 Get a road bike
🟢 Try axe throwing
🟢 Mountain bike race
⚪️ Skate skiing at pigeon creek
⚪️ Ice skating at Muskegon Luge
⚪️ Adventure race?

Get Involved/Volunteer

🟢 Join a club (Lakeshore Mountain Biking Sisters)
🟢 Volunteer in my community
🟢 Join a nonprofit board (Grand Haven Pride)
🟢 Become a mentor again

Build My Brain

⚪️ Learn to crochet
🟢 Get back into Spanish
🟢 Learn a little Italian
⚪️ Get CPR certified
⚪️ Jump off the pier
⚪️ Learn calligraphy
🟢 Watercolor paint

Writing

🟢 Try new-to-me book events
⚪️ Send 50 notes of gratitude
⚪️ Attend a writing retreat
🟢 Start a writers happy hour (there’s one this week!)
🟢 Take an editing course
🟢 Publish The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway
⚪️ Finish draft of It’s Always Been You
⚪️ Write Chasing the Sky short story
🟢 Get a literary agent

Kitchen

⚪️ Bake snickerdoodles
⚪️ Bake cinnamon raisin bread
⚪️ Make chicken molé
⚪️ Make homemade soup
⚪️ Make sushi

Culture & Community

🟢 Book a Mediterranean cruise!
🟢 Pet a Clydesdale
🟢 Meet Governor Gretchen Whitmer
🟢 Attend a Planned Parenthood event
⚪️ Get another tattoo
⚪️ Go to a roller derby match
⚪️ Go to the ballet
⚪️ Go to Muskegon Art Museum (free Thursdays)
🟢 Attend a City Council meeting
🟢 Go charter fishing
⚪️ Mackinac Bridge Labor Day walk
⚪️ Go to a Lions game

I started this list over Memorial Weekend of 2024 when I completed my first triathlon. I originally wanted to complete each item before my 50th birthday, but when the Detroit Lions’ amazing season made it impossible to get tickets, I decided I have through my 50th year to do everything.

Have you ever done a list like this? What would you add?