Growing up, we never celebrated birthdays much. My mom always said that everyone has one, and you didn’t do anything on your birthday worth celebrating, you just showed up. It was your Mama doing the work. As I got older, the timing of my birthday was challenging for dining out or getting away, as it’s Mother’s Day weekend and every 3 years or so, my birthday falls on the holiday proper. Mother’s Day is the #1 busiest day for restaurants- so I don’t go out for my birthday.

But… what is one thing I always say in my videos and posts?? Celebrate everything! It’s never too late to change, and I make the conscious decision daily to find joy in all of life’s experiences. This year, I’m so excited to be celebrated! Some of my friends took my Bucket List to heart and planned me a Downton Abbey themed dinner party for my birthday, complete with costumes, delicious tea and parlor games. I am so excited to be the excuse for some of my favorite people to all come together and enjoy each other’s company!

On the Bucket List train, I decided to identify some of my more attainable objectives and double down on getting them knocked out! This year for my birthday, I’m having a fundraiser to help support these goals. If you have $5 or $10 to contribute towards a limo ride or a bottle of Dom Perignon, I promise to document all adventures as I conquer them! Similarly, if you have any suggestions for unique, “once in a lifetime” type experiences, please share! That’s how I ended up on a Mardi Gras float next year, and I could not be more excited to spread smiles to the enthusiastic celebrators in New Orleans.

If “42” is the meaning of life, then I find it fitting that it was in my 42nd year that I found the peace and fulfillment that I always sought. Unfortunately, that came after a diagnosis of terminal lung disease. I started seeing a therapist in the 8th grade, I continue to see one even now, and the #1 thing they tried to drill into my stubborn Taurus bull brain is, “my value as a human is not related to my productivity.” Never, as I was running several businesses and managing the mental load of both life and logistics, did I think I would find myself finally happy when all of that was removed from my life.

I have been given the BEST gift! I was given my life back with a warning to “use it or lose it” and I’m doing my best to squeeze every last bit of adventure and adulation out of the days I am strong enough to embrace. Unfortunately, with those physical limitations I have lost my ability to work and I’m still in Disability appeal purgatory, so I’m trying to live life while I am able, but I need to fund these Bucket List items. I’ve made peace with certain things, like Raft the Gauley, that I know I will never be able to do, but there are some like see Australia/New Zealand or jump out of an airplane, that I want to stubbornly find a way to achieve.

Yes, it’s May and though I will be celebrating my birthday on the 10th, I aim to have this be the year of my bucket list where I will say YES to things that will move me closer to these once in a lifetime goals. The time has passed for “someday.” Some day is TODAY and if I’m going to get it done while I am strong enough to appreciate it, today means now. In the wise words of Andy Dufresne, “get busy living, or get busy dying.”

I’ve always called myself a professional enabler. I’ve decided that what I can do to pass joy on to the world is to continue to enable you- but in some unexpected ways. It is my hope that I enable you to: remove unnecessary stressors from your life, downsize your material possessions, focus on relationships and experiences, and say YES to the things that scare you. To me, that would be a remarkable legacy that touches people’s lives every day.

If you want to support my Bucket List dreams, GoFundMe or Venmo @Shannon-Jones-4001.