Coulda-Woulda-Shouldas

Brock and I only have twenty more days left in Happy Valley. Twenty more days!!!! It's weird to think about. We met here, fell in love here, started our marriage here. Aside from a summer in Chicago, it's been the only home we've known for five years. Despite this, there are several items left on my Utah bucket list:

Ragnar relay

Swiss Days at Midway

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in Orem

Hot pots

Skiing

Holi festival

Jazz game

Timpanogos Cave

Camping on Antelope Island

Sunset on the Salt Flats

Seeing the Great Salt Lake

Boating on Utah Lake

Road-tripping down to Vegas to see a show

Musical at the Tuacahn Theatre

Stadium of Fire

I've been thinking about all these things I have yet to do, and almost wish I had another year to do them. Yet the more I've thought about it, the more I realize that there will always be things left on your bucket list (at least for me). Even though I get a little depressed looking at the unfinished list above, it helps to think of the things I have done. For example, that entire list is worth less to me than the adventure I had on the Cascade saddle. Or backpacking with Brock under the shadow of Timpanogos.

If there's anything Utah has taught me, it's that my best memories come from doing things outdoors--either alone or with people I love. The mountains are where I've had some of the most transcendent moments of my life, which mean so much more to me than a fleeting hour of entertainment here or there. So while that list above is unfinished, I'm proud to have gone off the beaten path a little--having experienced Utah in ways that have changed me, rather than entertained me. For me, that makes all those coulda-woulda-shouldas obsolete.