Hey! I’m Annette White, the author of the book Bucket List Adventures, recovering restaurant owner, the boss at buck & co. and creator of this award-winning travel blog, Bucket List Journey whose mission is to give every person in the world the tools and inspiration to live their bucket list. And in 2024 I officially made my bucket list a full-time career. Phew! That’s a mouthful. As an obsessed new experience collector, my passion is for checking the world off my bucket list one adventure at a time and helping dreamers to live their list.
I love puppies, fuzzy socks and jammy red wine too.
My Story
About My Fear & anxiety
Besides all those things listed above, I am also an anxiety-ridden hypochondriac who let fear completely control my life. Just like so many people, I suffered from severe anxiety and countless fears that put some serious limitations on living the life that I was meant to live. I had all the classic symptoms; tunnel vision, panic attacks, body shakes…you name it, I had it. I had been to the emergency room so many times that I had started going to different hospitals for fear of being recognized as “the crazy regular” by the nurses, which is not embarrassing at all (sarcasm speaking!).
After about 20 years of not believing in the doctor’s anxiety diagnosis and hundreds of missed opportunities there was one morning that I was literally curled up on the floor of my bedroom. I remember it so clearly.
I was tired. So tired of all the restrictions that anxiety had placed on my life.
I was tired of not being able to live the life that my heart wanted and, in that very moment, I was finally ready to do something about it.
If you are interested in how I tackled my anxiety read my 8 Tips to Facing Your Fears.
The Life-Changing Promises
That painful morning, the being fed up with the fear combined with the exhaustion led me to make two life-changing promises to myself. The first was to never let fear make my decisions for me and the second was to start living my bucket list by taking at least one step towards my goals every day. From then on when an opportunity presented itself and I wanted to say no, I would ask myself if that negative is the voice of fear. It almost always was fear speaking. In that case, I vowed to turn that no into a yes.
The two promises, along with a crapload of hard work is what led me to creating a career out of my passion for bucket lists. And because of that I have had some of the best experiences all over the world.
The Bucket List Adventures
Since challenging and pushing through my fear, I have gone piranha fishing in the rainforest rivers of Guyana, swam with thousands of jellyfish in Palau, went on safari in Africa, rappelled down a hundred foot waterfall, fed a stingray, zip-lined through the Costa Rican rain forest, kayaked with beluga whales in Manitoba and even fed some swimming pigs in the Bahamas. Yes, I said swimming!
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I have also hiked an active volcano in Guatemala, bathed elephants at a rescue in Chiang Rai, went tidal bore rafting (Google it!) in Nova Scotia and flew through the sky on a trapeze…unfortunately, without the greatest of ease. You can also see the top of my head in a Bollywood movie (don’t be jealous) and I once put on my big girl panties to give blood.
Wherever there is a new adventure, I am surely not too far behind.
FYI: my anxiety and fear has not disappeared (not by a long-shot!), I have just decided to wake up every day and do it scared. Whatever “it” may be.
My Handsome Hubby
This is my husband Peter (AKA: Petey Pie—formerly Petey Chops). He thinks he is just another character in my story. Admittedly, he is the main extra in many articles on this blog and especially in my life. Plus, I find it really amusing to make him do weird things that he absolutely does not want to do, like eating bugs in Thailand, drinking out of a baby bottle at a themed restaurant in Tokyo and zorbing in Spain.
It must not be all that bad, he has stayed married to me for over 27 whopping years!
PS: he is also my human selfie stick.
Recovering Restaurant Owner
For 16 years, when I wasn’t traveling the world checking off my bucket list (or sneaking new ideas onto yours), you could have found me whipping up delicious food at our Italian restaurant, Sugo Trattoria.
I wore all the hats there: chef, prep cook, part-time therapist, accountant, and, on the rare not-so-glamorous day, dishwasher (definitely not my favorite role). Our bruschetta trio was legendary—if you ever had it, you know what I’m talking about!
But here’s the plot twist: we recently sold Sugo Trattoria. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made, but also one of the best. The stress of running the restaurant was starting to mess with my mental well-being, and I knew I had to choose peace over pressure. Letting it go wasn’t easy, but it gave me the freedom to focus on living my life fully—and helping you do the same with your bucket list.
It is not only important to me to live my very best life, but it’s also important to be able to provide the tools and inspiration for every dreamer to face their fears and live their bucket list too.
>> Are you ready to start your journey? If the answer is yes, then begin with my 2,000 bucket list ideas for FREE!
Stay in Touch
If you would like more information, want to share ideas or just want to stay in touch: contact Annette
