Why I'm ditching new year's resolutions for a more fulfilling bucket list in 2025

The year 2024 is a memory and as I embark on 2025, I am trying not to make a list of new resolutions. I’m giving thought to some of the things on my bucket list I haven’t done. There are things I’ve dropped off the list and I’ll be adding things this year. They are to be determined as I live each day.

As in years past, I’m planning to get a passport, but the longest trips I’m planning at the moment are to visit my family in St. Charles County and cousins in Arkansas. At the present time, I do not need a passport to journey to those destinations. I might plan a cruise and it would come in handy in the event I do. A trek I’ve always wanted to make is to Ireland, but I first want to know where my McIntosh family lived. I’d like to visit where they lived before they decided to sail for the United States. I know where my Lynch family spent a few generations and I’ve often been to the sites they lived in Shannon County, Missouri. My cousins have shared the Lynch family members were American Indians. I’d like to investigate and see what I may learn. From what I understand researching my Native American heritage will probably be harder than finding information about my family members who immigrated from across the globe.

The Horton branch of my family moved to Missouri from Illinois. There was talk they moved to Illinois from Tennessee. Oh, well, who knows where they all started on their journey, but most of them landed in Missouri, Illinois and California. Those are not bad places to settle.

I want to do things to make myself as well as help others be happy. At one time I thought making myself happy was a selfish thing, but I now realize I probably should have done more of those things.

Reflecting might be a waste of time, but at times it helps focus on the future.

Barbara Ann Horton is a staff writer at the Daily American Republic. She can be reached at bhorton@darnews.com.