Why I Finally Checked Santorini Off My Bucket List

Hi there, Chicky,

Youthful-aging is a journey I willing and joyfully pursue.  Aging is a terrifying prospect for me so I devote the time to the pursuit of an impossible youth: I faithfully tend to my skin, religiously workout my body,  fuel up with good-for-me foods, and get anti-aging treatments as needed — all in the hopes of extending this thing called youth for as long as possible. But the soul requires tending and rejuvenating too. What’s a youthful face and body if there’s a crumpled, old soul on the inside?  This is why I vowed to start checking “soul rejuvenation” things off my bucket list. Santorini was on the top of this list. 

I’ve had a bucket list for a long time, but it lived in my head. I periodically added things over the years under the category, I would like to do this one day, and left it at that. But a few years ago around the #midlifecrisis mark, it turned into a sense of urgency — turning 50 does that to you.  I started writing my list down — on paper — and started checking things off.

Now, checking things off your bucket list isn’t the same as checking things off some meaningless to-do list. This list has to contain the extraordinary, the I need to do or see this once in my lifetime sort of things; things that will make you come alive, and make you feel new. Life is to be lived and enjoyed fully and we all have a window in which to do it.

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Get it all in before your window closes, because once that window closes a door may open, but it will be the door to the retirement home.

I always believed the world to be a beautiful place,

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even the unrevealed corners I haven’t yet seen. I visited Greece for the first time when I was 20 years old in the hopes of discovering one of these hidden corners. I visited Athens and several of the islands, but sadly, not Santorini. This was a few years after the release of the movie, Summer Lovers, starting Daryl Hanna. If you’re around my age, then you know exactly what movie I’m talking about; it was a little riskee for the early 80s.

I dreamed of visiting Santorini ever since, and when I left that memorable trip to Greece, I vowed that I would be back soon just to visit that particular island. Thirty-three years later (not exactly soon), I did.

When I arrived in Greece this year, time stopped…or did it rewind? I felt like I accidentally stumbled upon my 20-year old self— like no time had passed — except no longer sporting 80s hair or the suspiciously dark tan acquired from not using sunscreen. And yet, it had been three decades since I had first looked across the waters of the Aegean sea and felt that incredible lightness of being we call youth.

Now, a disclaimer of sorts:

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I realize that about a gazillion bloggers these days visit Santorini for the sole purpose of taking beautiful photos for their feed. It’s become very cliche for bloggers to visit, along with Havana. (Don’t even get me started on that one.) But that wasn’t my purpose at all. My purpose was much more personal and meaningful to where I am in my life right now. The fact that I got beautiful photos for my own feed is secondary to the beautiful photos I have stored away in my memory, now happily cohabitating with the memories of my first trip here.

I find it so amusing in a way; to visit a place for the photo op without breathing in its essence or soaking up the beauty is a waste of a precious moment. I feel like going up to these young girls (they were everywhere) and saying to them, “Stop posing for the camera! Take in this view.”

Perhaps they don’t yet realize they may not be back for many years, or that they may never be back. They may not realize that life gets complicated and messy and that traipsing around the world gets pushed to the back of your to-do list — or pushed away completely —  once you have kids to raise and mouths to feed. They don’t know what a privilege it is to get to be a witness to such incredible beauty. If they knew what I know, they’d be breathing in the heady smell of youth instead of posing for instagramable photos. But as the saying goes, youth is definitely wasted on the young.

Santorini did not disappoint. It was all that I imagined and I was blessed to finally experience it (better late than never). Throughout this trip, I had some of those moments; the ones you grasp as proof of living, in the sweetest, most vibrant way. That’s what symbolizes a youthful life for me.

Don’t wait for the perfect time. The perfect time may never arrive. 

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So much of life’s day-to-day details are forgettable. But it’s in those moments of magic — you know what I’m talking about — when you’re so captivated by the beauty in the world that you could cry. It’s because of moments like those that I have a bucket list. 

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Sometimes it’s necessary to anti-age your life.

 

 

In the back of my mind, I do not lose touch with the fact that no matter how much I try to elude it, eventually, aging will find me. It will find all of us. But I can’t stand the thought of leaving anything on the table. Before it’s all said and done, I want to look back on my life and all the amazing memories I’ve made and say, I lived my life. I did all that I wanted to do.

I left a piece of my youth in Greece 33 years ago; I recaptured it when I went back. I felt all over again the expanse of life and hope; the possibility that still exists. It made me feel alive and refreshed, and like time hasn’t touched me.

I always hope in some way you will be inspired by my crazy youthful journey. I hope that you vow to take care of yourself, pursue youth inside and out, and create a life you will be proud to look back on.

Tell me what’s on your bucket list and what you’ve checked off…maybe I’ll get some idea to add to mine.

xoxo,

V