In 100 days it’s my birthday. And it’s not just any birthday. On 23 July, I turn 40! Yes, 40! Yikes. Thankfully they say 40 is the new 30, so I am hoping I will be alright! Anyway, since I have never been keen on birthdays, and 40 sounds particularly daunting, I decided the lead up to this birthday needed to be fun. Feeling inspired by something my friend Haley did when she turned 30, I decided to create a 40 before 40 list last September. Basically, it’s a bucket list that I need to achieve by my 40th birthday. Of course, since I only had 10 months to achieve 40 activities, I had to keep it realistic but also fun and challenging. It's not a surprise that brainstorming with close friends and family, led to a great list.
It goes without saying, that my unemployment has proven very useful in terms of getting things checked off of my 40 before 40
list. Good timing! Some of the activities I achieved so far are going to three
museums in Freetown (all on the same day), seeing a sunrise on a hill top in
Haiti, filming a mannequin challenge in Freetown, making curtains with lappa
using the sewing machine I received from my parents, Stefan and Genae in
Seattle, learning to make a Moscow Mule in Seattle, a 10 km walk with my sister
in Middelburg and a sleepover with my sister and my nieces in their living
room. It’s been really fun that friends and family are so keen to help
me check items off of my list. I never thought everyone would be so excited
about it. Stay tuned for more stories, photos and an amazing video
documenting some of the achievements, but first, let me share the complete
#40before40 list with you!
1. Visit 1 new country
2. Drive a vehicle in Sierra Leone for the first time
3. ✔Wear an Africana headpiece in public (4/11/16
– Jayne’s Wedding, Kent, Sierra Leone)
4. ✔Visit Outamba Kilimi national park in Kamakwie, Sierra Leone
(24-26/2/17)
5. ✔Attend a book club (21/3/17 – Sierra Leone)
6. ✔Visit Bumbuna Dam
(10-12/3/17)
7. ✔Take up blogging again (26/10/16)
8. Swim to the island off of Bureh beach, Sierra Leone
9. ✔Successfully take an ETAT plus course (24-25/9/16 – Ola During
Children’s Hospital)
10. Successfully complete an online course – in progress
11. Get a massage
12. ✔Make something creative with lappa on my own (27/2/17 – Sierra Leone)
13. Run a race
14. Grow something green (and edible!)
15. Improve a foreign language (conversational) – French – in
progress via Duolingo
16. Sponsor a child
17. Try 10 new cooking/baking recipes in 10 months – in progress
18. Read 10 books in 10 months – in progress
19. Go 72 hours without social media
20. Get a manicure and pedicure (1/11/16) at Nali, Freetown, Sierra
Leone
21. A 30-day challenge – completing acts of kindness or gratefulness
22. ✔Go to the National Museum, Special Court Museum, Train Museum
in Sierra Leone (5/12/16)
23. Learn to cook a Sierra Leonean dish
24. Visit Bonthe island, Sierra Leone
25. ✔Visit Haiti again but this time go see where my parents
live (9-23/12/16)
26. Picnic at Baw baw (22/10/16), Mama beach (30/10/16), John Obey,
Black Johnson beaches, Sierra Leone
27. Walk down Lumley beach making a fashion statement
28. Visit Bomba ice cream factory and discuss new flavours
29. Walk up
Leceister peak and have a picnic at the top
30. Swing in a Color Cloud hammock in Sierra Leone (a friend’s enterprise) – hammock purchased 12/16
31. ✔Buy a teapot for myself (5/1/17 – De Efteling, The Netherlands)
32. ✔Attend one ‘Insanity’ exercise session or Aerobics session
(25/11/16 – Sierra Leone)
33. ✔Mannequin
challenge in Sierra Leone (24/3/17 – New Brookfields Hotel, Sierra Leone)
34. ✔Sleepover
with my sister and nieces in their living room (13/1/17 – the Netherlands)
35. Write
a short story or a poem
36. ✔Watch
the sunrise from a hill top (23/12/16 – Haiti)
37. ✔Walk
10 km with my sister (13/1/17 – the Netherlands)
38. ✔Make
Cocktails (multiple times - USA, Sierra Leone)
39. Take a
photography lesson
40. Go on a boat adventure along the
Western Area peninsula (attempt 27/11/16)
A
#40before40 #bucketlist #40isthenew30 #sandraturns40 #alwaysanadventure
