I think we forget you choose to be happy. You choose how you pick yourself up, how you move on. You choose those who surround you based off of how they make you feel, and if you have people around you who make you feel anything less than happy, chances are you don't need them. There are times when you don't choose what happens to you, when you can't control something, but you choose how you deal with it. You let yourself sulk for a few days and then get back out there.
If this summer has taught me anything it is that we aren't invincible. Not every day is a for thing. To me, it is once we realize how fragile life is that we truly start living. I don't mean becoming afraid of the world, I mean realizing that any given moment tragedy can come upon you rather you are in your car, in a movie theater or in your house. With this in mind, I started to make a bucket list. I've made them before, however, I wanted to make one more realistic, one with things on it that I truly wanted to do.

1. I want to sky dive. More than anything, I want to know what it is like to be at the mercy of a stranger, to fall through the sky and to jump out of a plane. 
2. I want to bungee jump somewhere amazing. I looked into this and this might come as a shock to some of you, but the Midwest doesn't have the best places for bungee jumping. 
3. I want to see one of the seven wonders of the world. For a teacher salary seeing all 7 is just too much. 
4. I want to noticeably make a difference in someones life. 
5. I want to experience love at first sight. I've come to believe I'm a hard person to fall in love with and then to continue to love, but this goal isn't something I need to happen to me exactly. I want to see it, or hear two people who have been together for over 30 years tell me it happened to them. 
6. I want to own a horse. 
7. I want to teach until I can't anymore. 
8. I want to go to every state. 
9. I want to visit a shoe tree. 
10. I want to get married 
11. I want to have kids. 
12. I want to have a puppy, preferably a husky or a bulldog.
13. I want to have a boat and live by a lake. 

That's all for now, but I'm sure I'll add to it later.