I decided to take a break from writing to revisit my vlogging days… Check it out!
Leave your comments below, I’m looking forward to picking a winner!
Love & Summer,
Sarah
I decided to take a break from writing to revisit my vlogging days… Check it out!
Leave your comments below, I’m looking forward to picking a winner!
Love & Summer,
Sarah
Over the past nine months that I’ve lived in Florida, one of the many things I have come to appreciate is the unexpected; the best moments in life truly are the unpredictable. Today served as a prime example of one of those moments that I absolutely live for.
One of my best friends, Cole, was driving through our school’s parking lot yesterday afternoon, simply trying to get home after a long day of summer classes. As he was following another car, something suddenly flew out of the driver’s window. Curious, he stopped his own car and picked up the shunned object, only to find that it was a brand new NHL Pittsburgh Penguins snapback. He tried to stop the car ahead of him to return the hat, but the owner clearly did not want it back. Henceforth, being the amazing friend that he is, Cole has generously donated it to the bucket list cause.
I absolutely love it, and cannot thank him enough. They say that life works in mysterious ways… let’s just say that I am in love with mystery. Official summer fashion statement? Check.
Love & Summer,
Sarah
Hello there, lovelies! Let me reintroduce myself.
My name is Sarah, and I’m a 16 year-old teenager currently living in Florida. Last year I attempted to keep myself from succumbing to the deep reaches of boredom that becomes inevitable when summer vacation rolls around. In order to accomplish this massive feat, I created a summer bucket list of 104 things to do to stay occupied. Guess what? It worked.
That’s why I have decided to return for another unpredictable summer. You’ll notice some familiar list items from last summer, of which I either found to be worthy of resurrecting or left as unfinished business. Others are just slightly modified. Others still are brand-spanking new.
Starting May 4th, I’ll have 109 days of summer vacation.
109 days –>;;; 109 list items.
So without further ado, I present…
The Bucket List 2012
1. Create a summer mix tape/playlist.
2. Eat at Hooters.
3. Go downtown to take photos.
4. Spend an entire day with my little brother.
5. Silly string fight.
6. Write a complaint/satisfaction letter to see if they’ll send free stuff.
7. Record someone’s life story.
8. Convince someone I’m from a foreign country.
9. Wake up every morning before 7:30 a.m.
10. Water fight. Including but not limited to: balloons, guns, hoses, and buckets.
11. Kiss a stranger.
12. Buy a pair of TOMS.
13. Paint heart bookcase.
14. Participate in a charity event.
15. Buy an outfit at a secondhand store.
16. Buy a snapback.
17. Say ‘yes’ to everything for a day.
18. Make a new friend.
19. Run a 5k.
20. Attend a good concert.
21. Beach. Beach. Beach.
22. Watch Gone With the Wind.
23. Practice yoga.
24. Pull an all-nighter.
25. Compile a photography series.
26. Go rock climbing.
27. Open a shop on Etsy.
28. Play spin the bottle.
29. Use a Polaroid camera.
30. Go through a drive-thru backwards.
31. Get a “You Mad Bro?” shirt.
32. Participate in 30 Hour Famine.
33. Apply for at least 5 scholarships.
34. Become an expert at something.
35. Attempt surfing.
36. Climb a tree.
37. Eat at Andy’s.
38. Warped Tour.
39. Host a bonfire.
40. Customize a bikini.
41. Read at least 8 books.
42. Hold a garage sale.
43. Have my letter to the editor published.
44. Pick an official summer song.
45. Attempt the cinnamon challenge and post it on YouTube.
46. Create a recipe.
47. Make sun tea.
48. Hold a stranger’s hand on a roller coaster.
49. Destroy a “Wreck This Journal”
50. Spend a whole day barefoot.
51. Tie-dye
52. Hold an Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon.
53. Leave my initials in wet concrete.
54. Play hide-and-seek in IKEA.
55. Decorate my bathroom.
56. Lay on a roof.
57. Go to the drive-in movies.
58. Spend the night in a car.
59. Leave Florida.
60. Pierce something.
61. Get a henna tattoo.
62. Hand out lemons while wearing a shirt that says “Life.”
63. Buy a pair of heart shaped sunglasses.
64. Play a game of poker with real money.
65. Eat at Denny’s past midnight.
66. Experiment with helium.
67. Go to the mall with a “Free Hugs” sign.
68. Eat a snowcone.
69. Set off an illegal firework.
70. Have everyone I meet for a day sign my shirt.
71. Play dessert Twister.
72. See a play/musical.
73. Go for a midnight swim.
74. Throw a message-in-a-bottle into the ocean.
75. Celebrate a foreign holiday the way the natives do.
76. Get a tan tattoo.
77. Stargaze for hours.
78. Have a conversation with a stranger at a stoplight.
79. Buy a supply of Lip Smackers.
80. Sticky note a car.
81. Watch “500 Days of Summer.”
82. Plank.
83. Do a Chinese fire drill at a stoplight.
84. Visit a museum.
85. Visit an aquarium.
86. Drive around with a “Honk If…” saying painted on my windows.
87. Watch “The Bucket List.”
88. Do something nice for my professor.
89. Get a chain of 15 people to walk like an Egyptian with me.
90. Carwash.
91. Attempt kayaking.
92. Recreate a creation on Epic Meal Time.
93. Make vegan cupcakes.
94. See an R-rated movie at the theatre before I turn 17.
95. See an R-rated movie at the theatre after I turn 17.
96. Read a cheesy romantic paperback.
97. Eat nothing but cold cereal for a day.
98. Use public transportation.
99. Pay for a stranger’s meal.
100. Own a pair of yoga pants/shorts.
101. Have a conversation with somebody on a random chat generator.
102. Yell at the top of my lungs.
103. Tan on the roof of my car in a random parking lot.
104. Get my license.
105. Cook a healthy meal for my family.
106. Learn how to say the alphabet backwards.
107. Build a sandcastle.
108. Get a job.
109. Create a video depicting the results of Summer 2012.
For me, last summer was all about making it count… Now the stakes are higher than ever. My senior year marks the end of the beginning, and that ending starts with this summer. The time to throw away my inhibitions and be carefree is now. I’m not letting anything hold me back.
I’m ready. Are you?
Love & Summer,
Sarah
P.S. Plus, I’m adding a GWTS Tumblr! Check it out on my Contact page. It’s a little barren right now, but keep checking back for updates!
Do you remember that girl who played tennis in the rain? The girl who harassed more than one stranger? The girl who destroyed a watermelon? The girl who went on late-night Taco Bell runs? The girl who started a summer bucket list out of sheer boredom? Well, that girl has decided to return for another summer of blogging, pictures, and unforgettable memories. That’s right… I’m back for Summer 2012.
As you can probably already see, I am in the process of updating. This means a new look, new content, and of course… a new bucket list.
The new list will be released Monday, April 16th!
Until then, I will be working on these updates and responding to all of the fan mail and comments I received while hibernating.
Mark your calendars…
The first day of summer vacation is Friday, May 4th!
109 days. 109 list items. 1 summer left.
Will you be able to keep up?
Love & Summer,
Sarah Emm
“There’s 104 days of summer vacation
And school comes along just to end it
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spend it…”
Aaah, the undeniable words of Phineas and Ferb. As I near my junior year of high school, this simple theme song has become somewhat of a wake-up call. To be quite frank, I’m terrified that I only have two summers left as a “kid”; ironically, we spend our entire childhoods wanting to “grow up”. Therefore, I have made a pact with myself to reevaluate what it means to be carefree, independent, and overall conscious of the given time, by creating a Summer Bucket List. This list has quite the range, from the childish and silly, to the meaningful and self-fulfilling. Additionally I included some that are more time-insensitive laundry list items, but nevertheless important (to me anyway). The reason I have decided to compile and record my summer activities is a) It’s on the list, duh, and b) I need witnesses. Without the motivation that someone, somewhere is actually reading this, I might as well start recording a few extra shows on the DVR. Well, here goes nothing:
1. Fix jumbo skirt from Charlotte Russe.
2. Play tennis… LOTS of tennis. Every day. All day. Tennis.
3. Put forth a dedicated effort to my photography, to be edited and compiled into a photo-journal depicting this epic summer.
3.5 Go downtown to take said photographs.
4. Walk to Dairy Queen with my little brother.
5. Fill up an entire coloring book.
6. Write a complaint/satisfaction letter, just to get free stuff.
7. Record someone’s life story – nursing home anyone?
8. Convince someone you’re from a foreign country.
9. Wake up every morning before 7:30 a.m.
10. Water fight. Including but not limited to: balloons, guns, hoses, and buckets.
11. Superglue a quarter to the ground. Watch. Laugh.
12. Paint finger and toe nails each a different color.
13. Paint heart bookcase.
14. Participate in a charity walk/run/event.
15. Buy something at the second-hand store… then wear/use it.
16. Finger paint a picture on canvas and then frame it.
17. Say ‘yes’ to everything for one day.
18. Write and send a hand-written letter to everyone in my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and god-family)
19. Run a 5k.
20. Attend a GOOD concert.
21. Fly a kite.
22. Watch ‘Gone With the Wind’
23. Do an entire afternoon of yoga.
24. Win something in an auction.
25. Win a radio contest.
26. Go rock climbing again <3
27. FINALLY try HuHot.
28. See a fortune teller/palm reader.
29. Use a Polaroid camera to take pictures with random people, then let them keep them.
30. Work on the family tree.
31. Do 100 sit-ups every day.
32. Go 24 hours without food.
33. Make my own cookie cake.
34. Become an expert at something (cow breeds, Russian literature… anything)
35. Enter a photography contest.
36. Buy a pet goldfish.
37. Write a letter to a soldier overseas.
38. Tie-dye a set of sheets.
39. Bake a batch of really cute cupcakes.
40. Go a whole week without technology.
41. Finish 4 books.
42. Hold a garage sale – use profits to fund summer.
43. Write a letter to the editor.
44. Pick an official summer song.
45. Buy a bouquet of flowers.
46. Mow the (Front) Lawn.
47. Make sun tea.
48. Play miniature golf.
49. Plant something edible.
50. Spend one whole day barefoot.
51. Help an old lady cross the street.
52. Hold an Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon.
53. Put in >temporary< colored highlights.
54. Create something made out of duct tape.
55. Play tennis in the rain.
56. Leave initials in wet concrete.
57. Start a blog.
58. Sleep in a car for a night.
59. Spend a day creating a masterpiece out of sidewalk chalk.
60. Send a nice card to a stranger from the phone book.
61. Give a dog a bath.
62. Leave a sticker on the ice cream truck… after ordering ice cream of course (:
63. Carve name into a tree.
64. Play a REAL game of poker with REAL money.
65. Stretch every day to get perfect heel stretches and scorpions.
66. Jump into a pool fully clothed.
67. Go to the mall with a sign that says ‘Free Hugs’.
68. Attend a midnight release/premiere.
69. Empty a gumball machine.
70. Have everyone you meet for a day sign your shirt.
71. Watch a foreign film.
72. Destroy a watermelon.
73. Go on a picnic.
74. Make a music video.
75. Celebrate a foreign holiday the way the natives do.
76. Get a tan tattoo.
77. Watch a meteor shower (Aug. 12-13).
78. Have a HUGE Nerf gun fight.
79. Go to Taco Bell past midnight.
80. Throw a boomerang.
81. Throw a paper airplane off of a bridge.
82. See a Chihuly
83. Rent a paddle boat for an hour.
84. Ride a tandem bike with somebody.
85. Obtain a *********fest button/participate in ********fest.
86. Stay outside for 12 hours straight.
87. Watch “The Bucket List’ the movie
88. Record a video blog for 1 week and then post it on YouTube.
89. Get a chain of 15 people to Walk like an Egyptian with.
90. Set up a lemonade stand.
91. Attempt kayaking/canoeing.
92. Keep room clean (relatively).
93. Buy and use and develop an underwater camera.
94. Make a French Silk Pie.
95. Eat breakfast at Daniel’s.
96. Try more scented nail polishes.
97. Make a banner to hang in public.
98. Talk in a British accent for 48 hours straight.
99. Pay for a stranger’s meal.
100. Write a note on a stranger’s windshield with dry-erase marker.
101. Attend a WWII Roundtable Event.
102. Rock a red lip.
103. Go tanning on the roof of my car in a random parking lot.
104. Create a video depicting the results of the Summer of 2011.
Cliche, no? But it seems better than the alternatives. Plus, look at it this way – I’ve already got #57 crossed off.
At the time of the creation of this post, I have 4 days left of school. After that date (June 8), I plan to record my daily escapades, elaborating on the list, and hopefully checking it off, one adventure at a time. And of course, I hope you choose to come along for the ride too. Until then, feel free to check out some of the other pages I’ll be updating in the sidebar on the left!
*Disclaimer: To protect my personal identity, some names have been changed or hidden. Thanks for understanding I’m not a fan of rapists and/or stalkers (:
Love & Summer,
Sarah Emm