Reverse Bucket-List

I've been wanting to write a post for a few days now, but inspiration has not been striking me. I usually have something going on in my life that I can write about, or I just get a really good idea about something interesting to write, but that hasn't been the case lately. SOOO, I turned to Pinterest. And I found a pin titled "30 Blog Post Ideas for When You Feel Uninspired." Perfect for me. One of the suggestions was to write about your "reverse bucket list:" not things you want to do in your life before you kick it, but things that you've already done. Lucky for me, I've got both a "Bucket List" and a "Finished Bucket List" Pinterest board, so I am going to pull some things off of the latter and use them as inspiration for this post- to share some of the awesome things that I've been privileged to do in my short 22 years of life!! Here we go.

1. Catch a Bride's Bouquet
- This is actually kind of a funny story. In my life, I have caught the bouquet at a wedding reception 3 times. The best part: I was 8 years old when I caught two of said-bouquets. Yes, eight years old. I don't know if I've addressed the enormity of my Struck family in a previous post, but basically, it's a huge family. My dad is one of 10 kids, and I am one of 32 grandchildren. I'm also the second youngest grandchild, so I've got LOTS of cousins that were getting married when I was young. The summer when I was 8, my cousin Hillary and my cousin Amanda both got married about 3 weeks apart. I was a little twerp running around in the cute dresses my mom made me, braids in my hair, and dancing like a maniac. And because I wanted to be just like all the older girls, I made my way to the dance floor when the bride was getting ready to throw the bouquet. When I caught the bouquet at Hillary's wedding, my family just thought it was "cute." But when I caught the bouquet again at Amanda's wedding about 3 weeks later, my aunts started telling my mom that she needed to start sewing me a wedding dress, because I was obviously going to get married sometime soon. (Seriously, aunts, I WAS EIGHT.) I was in high school when I caught the third bouquet, also at a cousin's wedding (unfortunately, that one ended in divorce. Maybe that's why I am still super single despite all these bouquets I've caught.)

2. Spend the Night at an Aquarium
- I was in Girl Scouts from kindergarten until I graduated from high school. Being in Girl Scouts was awesome, and I got to do lots of awesome stuff that I for sure wouldn't have gotten to do if I wasn't in Scouts. Going to summer camp, going on two road-trips around Iowa two summers in a row, selling a bazillion boxes of cookies, etc. When I was in second grade, my mom, another girl from my troop and her mom, and I made our way to Omaha, NE on a Friday night for an adventure at the Henry Doorly Zoo. And YES, we got to spend the night in the aquarium. We also got to go on a night-hike around the zoo and see all the animals at night, ride on the carousel, and see the newly-opened (at the time) Desert Dome exhibit. My only complaint about spending the night in the aquarium is that penguins are PARTY ANIMALS at night. Very LOUD party animals.

3. Have a Best Friend Who Will Never Let Me Down
- I consider myself VERY fortunate, because I've got more than one best friend who I know will always be there for me. Amy Jo (who I wrote a post about earlier) has been there for me since 1999, that's the last century dudes! She's always supported everything I want to do, and has been one of my biggest cheerleaders, and I know that that is going to continue as we go through life (we always joke that we are going to be the rebel-rousers at the nursing home someday.) I'm also super fortunate to have made two more best friends during my time at college: Kam and KT.
Kam is kind of like my Yoda- I turn to him when I need sincere advice, when I need someone to remind me that they believe in me and love me, or when I need someone to tell me to stop being dramatic. (He's really good at that part.) We also have a LOT in common when it comes to the music we listen to, so he's become my concert buddy- he's been with me at every single concert I've attended in my life. He's also super smart and talented, and has been helping me plan curriculum for my new teaching job (not going to lie, I get a little bitter when I sit and think about how to do something for days, and Kam can just come up with a really good idea off the top of his head. Maybe I should have him just come help me in my classrooms for a few days this summer.)
KT is a wonderful human being- there is so much that I went through this last year that I couldn't have gotten through if it weren't for her. She makes me laugh and smile when I just wanted to cry. She also spent a fair amount of time sitting with me in the Edson bathroom while I sobbed my eyes out, and just reminded me that things are going to be okay. It's also nice to know that I'm always going to hear a happy "Miss Kelsey!" exclamation whenever she sees me! I already miss her like crazy, but it will be a lot of fun hanging out when I get my own place next year!

4. Donate my Hair to Locks of Love
- I donated a 13 inch ponytail to Locks of Love the summer before I started 4th grade. I had had long hair for most of my life, so the removal of that 13 inch ponytail was a drastic change. Since then, my hair really hasn't grown long anymore- it gets to my shoulders and kind of just stays there.

5. Feel Like a Barbie Doll
- This happened my senior year of high school. My dad got really sick when I was a senior, and couldn't work. Money was really tight, our home was really stressful, and I was a wreck. I had planned on going to prom with my friends, but in a typical dramatic Kelsey fashion, I told my family that I wouldn't go because we couldn't afford to get a dress and a hair appointment and flowers and the dinner ticket and all of that stuff. A more appropriate title for this one should be "feel like Cinderella," because I got blessed with two fairy godmothers: Juli Kwikkel and Jodi Thiesen. Juli is my mom's boss, and when she found out that I wasn't going to prom because we didn't have the money, she wouldn't hear of it. I wore one of her daughter's dresses, and she bought my corsage to wear with my dress. Jodi was my guidance counselor, and was well informed of the situation happening at home. An alum of my high school had reached out, wanting to know if there were any girls who wanted to go to prom but couldn't afford to get their hair done. She ended up giving me a whole make-over because Jodi gave her my name and told her about the stuff happening at home. I got my hair high-lighted, and got a super make-over the day of prom. Those two ladies made sure that I would get a chance to experience prom with my friends, and getting made over like a Barbie doll was a pretty fun time.

There's still so many things I want to do and experience in my life, but it's nice to take a step back and talk about all the cool things that have already happened in my life. Be on the look-out for more posts of this nature in the future, and maybe some posts about some of the things I want to do.

As always, thank you for reading these posts. If you ever have any suggestions of things I can write about, or things you want me to write about, shoot them my way!

Ciao!