Picture by: Royston Toh

1. Backpack around the world
I love travelling to new places. I love immersing myself in a completely different culture and getting lost in a new country. It’s an amazing, refreshing feeling of realising how small you really are in this world. You meet new people and learn how although we live a thousand miles away from each other, we aren’t really that different. When it’s all over, you come back a completely different person.

2. Send my parents on a holiday
They’ve sacrificed much for me. They could have gone on a thousand and one trips to beautiful places and yet, they chose to have me. So I think they deserve an all-expense paid trip to anywhere they wished to go in the world.

3. Kiss under the mistletoe on Christmas night
It’ll be fun and awkward. It’ll be part of the Christmas magic. Years down the road, it’ll be a memory that will make me smile to myself and say, “Whoa! That was crazy!”

4. Go on a road trip with my best friends
I’m the type of girl that’s ready to rough it out. But my best friends are the type who would refuse staying in a backpackers’ inn if it didn’t have clean amenities. This would be quite a feat to achieve.

5. Re-enact the kissing scene from my favourite romance movie
With the one I love of course! Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of my all-time favourite romance films. I mean, who can say no to Audrey Hepburn? The final scene in the movie has Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) realising that she was truly in love with Paul Varjak (George Peppard) and they kiss in the rain. That, my friends, is a kiss to remember.

6. Take a homeless person out for dinner
Buy him a good dinner, not a cheap meal. Talk to him, learn about him, and understand him. See things from his point-of-view. Walk around in his shoes. Maybe then the world can be a better place.

7. Serenade to a stranger
There’s no better way to make someone’s day than to make him or her feel like they are the most special person on earth. So why not grab a guitar and start singing to them about how amazing they are? I’m thinking along the lines of Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are”.

8. Be a bartender
I’ve always thought bartenders were pretty cool people. Serving up beers, shots and cocktails, while listening to the drunken ramblings of random people passing through. It’s not an easy job, but I think you’d get to see many different people from different walks of life.

9. Learn how to dance the Flamenco
The Flamenco is a form of Spanish folk music and dance originating form southern Spain. It is often associated with the Romani people of Spain. Used as a form of expression and often a sign of resistance especially during the Spanish Civil War against General Francisco Franco, the dance is rich in history and culture. It’s not easy to learn and according to some masters, the Flamenco dance is a gift that only some can do. Still, wouldn’t do any harm to try, would it?

10. Skinny-dipping in the Caribbean waters at night
It’s wild and reckless, but it’s bound to be exhilarating. The adrenaline rush from hoping not to get caught, the romance of the moon shinning down on you as you swim, the freedom of letting go of your inhibitions (and clothes). Plus, think of the stories you’d be able to tell your grandkids one day.

Labels: Lifestyle, Nerissa Tan, Ten Things on my Bucket List