NOW CLOSED Tell Pink Lady® what would have been on your bucket list of things to do before you’re 21 – a bottle of pink Taittinger champagne and flutes worth £100 to be won

[AngelieMumsnet]

As part of their 21st birthday celebration, we've been asked by Pink Lady® apples to find out what was on (or is on if you're still that side of 21) your bucket list of 'Things to do by the time you're 21'.

They say "Pink Lady® apples first arrived in the UK 21 years ago and we are celebrating in true Pink Lady® style! We're running an on-pack promotion where you can win one of 21 prizes that are on our birthday wish-list, including a trip to the Big Apple, a week in Tuscany and a jaunt on the Orient Express. Between turning 21, the traditional 'coming of age', and a wish-list packed full of adventures, it got us wondering what people did, or thought they would have done, by the time they hit this major milestone."

So, did/do you have a bucket list of things to do before your 21st birthday? Maybe you wanted to see the world or go on holiday with your friends? Did you aspire to go to university or start climbing that career ladder? Maybe you were determined to do a skydive, or get the piercing you'd always wanted? Or perhaps it was as simple as falling in love? Did you achieve any of them? Any epic fails?

Is there anything you wish you'd done before turning 21? If you could, what would you tell your younger self to do? What would you advise your DC's to do before they are 21?

Whatever you did or wish you had done, Pink Lady® would love to hear about it.

Everyone who adds their comments on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer can win a bottle of pink Taittinger champagne and two champagne flutes worth £100.

Please note your comments may be included on Pink Lady's social media channels (Facebook and Twitter), and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you agree to this.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

PS For a chance to win a prize from the Pink Lady® 21st birthday wish-list, pick up a specially marked pack in your local store from 1st July and enter the competition here.

[mrscumberbatch]

I had a very short list pre-21.

Go to Japan.

Always have ridiculous looking hair.

Start your own Business.

Date lots of silly boys.

I completed all of them successfully and look back on it fondly. I hope DD has a fun list too.

[hermancakedestroyer]

Be happy - seize every opportunity that comes your way - do everything you want to do and not what everyone else wants you to do - learn how to open champagne properley so that you can take over in that 'no-one knows how to open it' moment at a party - eat an oyster - travel if you can - do something for charity - make good friends - enjoy yourself

[worldgonecrazy]

I had a list, I wrote it when I was 14/15 and it was full of very shallow things, such as be on first name terms with someone famous, go on tour with a famous band, go out with the local heartthrob. I found the list when I was 18, realised I'd done everything on it, and it left me feeling rudderless for a while. What do you do when you've achieved everything you want?

Of course, as I got older I had new and more fulfilling items on my "list of things to do with my life".

To be honest, I think most of the pre-21 "things to do" will be shallow, because at that young age most of us are lucky enough not to have the pressures and responsibility of real life.

I will tell my daughter to go out, to be brave and to be kind to other people. I will also tell her the same thing my parents told me: "Wherever you are in the world, if you're in trouble, let us know and we will come and get you." Of course, that statement might not be one they could live up to (not that I knew at the time), but it gave me the courage and support I needed to go out and have a good time. None of which did me any good in the long run, but I don't regret the choices that I made at that age.

[Labootin]

Bucket lists are for squares who think they need a checklist to prove they've lived.

TBH the only thing you should be doing before 21 is enjoying yourself.

You hopefully have your health, your looks (yy. I'm shallow) and think you're invincible.

Do what you want, but don't be defined by a list of what you should be doing

(At 20 iirc I was stoned in Goa)

[MrsHoarder]

Go to university to study maths
Do a season skiing/repping
Be on a ski team
Snog crush

3 out of 4 is pretty good really.

[Kveta]

I didn't really have a bucket list - I was quite focused on uni, and actually turned 21 whilst on a uni work placement year abroad - met DH there too (before he was DH, obviously!).

I think the only thing, in retrospect, that I wish I had done before I hit 21, was to have counselling to deal with my mental health issues (was sexually assaulted by a boyfriend as a teenager, and it messed me up royally!!) - would have made the rest of my 20s a lot easier if I had dealt with that earlier. But otherwise, I managed to get onto a degree course that interested me, got to travel, got to live abroad, made many lovely friends, and met the man who would be my husband (and father of our 2 children) all before 21 - not bad really!

I hope my DC have some ambition to do something before they hit 21 - but the only things I will be nagging them to do will be learning to drive, and completing their schooling! Everything else will be up to them!

[Bluecarrot]

Travel - I was signed up to do a charity bike hike through India the summer I turned 18, a trek in Cambodia the following year and was going to work in an orphanage in Romania for 6 months ( helping build /decorate and move the kids in) in between the other trips. Dd came as a surprise - i was 3 months pregnant on my 18th birthday - so had to pull out of all of them!

Last year I did manage to do an amazing charity trip- just 9 years later than originally planned though! I will def do more in the future.

Hey, I still FEEL 21 ;)

[SilasGreenback]

I don't think bucket lists were a thing before I was 21 - you just lived your life.

I went to India and university, plus various camping trips with friends in the UK and Europe, but it was just because the chances arose - no long term planning!

[ShatnersBassoon]

I can't remember having any particular ambition before I was 21. I didn't have any hopes or dreams, just wanted to plod along enjoying everyday things.

Having said that, I did travel on my own, went to plenty of gigs, had a girly holiday, drove my own car, lived with my boyfriend and did various other of the things on a lot of the lists above before I was 21, so I don't think lacking ambition held me back

[carriedaway]

Mine was to go to Glastonbury and luckily I had gone twice by then. I remember the time from 6th form to the end of Uni as one of great freedom and possibility, where getting enjoyment from going to gigs, travelling around and spending hours and hours laughing with fab friends was the norm. I look back so fondly on that time and hope my children get to experience that before a life of responsibilities take over.
Ps pink ladies are the only apples my dh will eat!

[aftereight]

To live alone (tick)
To be financially independent (tick)
To travel round India (tick)
To have a career plan (didn't happen!)

[OscarandLulu]

Travel the world, go to university, fall in love - once, be brilliant at something ( took me a while to accept that that comes at a price and actually we're all on a spectrum of averages with only a few exceptions! ) ... X

[WildThongsHeartString]

When I was 20 all I wanted to do was settle down, marraige, children etc.

So - engaged at 21, ,married at 23, divorced at 25 - epic fail I would say.(no children then)

Looking back I should have broadened my horizons, travelled, met people. if I could turn the clock back I would do things diferently - but you know what they say about the benefits of hindsight!

[ProfYaffle]

Mine's a bit of a reverse bucket list I guess. Throughout school I was told I was University material (in the days when it was unusual for a working class kid to go to Uni) and felt heavily pressurised to go and ended up making a poor choice of degree.

Looking back, it wasn't right for me to go aged 18. I wish I'd taken a few years out, worked, found out what I wanted to do and then decided on a degree when I was 21 and gone back as a mature student. I think I'd have got more out of the experience when I was slightly older and more confident.

I'll be telling my dc there's no one 'right' way to go about educating yourself, they'll have the space to make their own decisions.

[bongobrady]

Stay Single
Work in Ibiza
Learn a language
Volunteer for as many UK festivals as possible
Don't Worry about the future it all comes right in the end
Enjoy being turned down to buy alcohol/cigarettes it means your face isn't drooping!
Don't rush to do everything or you'll have nothing left to do by the time your 40....I'm still waiting to get my tattoo ;-)

[bongobrady]

hello
Stay Single
Work in Ibiza
Learn a language
Volunteer for as many UK festivals as possible
Don't Worry about the future it all comes right in the end
Enjoy being turned down to buy alcohol/cigarettes it means your face isn't drooping!
Don't rush to do everything or you'll have nothing left to do by the time your 40....I'm still waiting to get my tattoo ;-)

[MelanieCheeks]

I knew I was an independent young woman when I bought myself a Honda 90, and set off not knowing where I was headed. I caught a ferry out to a remote island off the coast of Ireland, and as I leaned over the railings with the evening wind in my hair, the sunset golden on the sea, it occurred to me that no-one knew where I was. I had arrived.

[nenevomito]

I wish I'd saved and travelled the globe a bit before I dropped into the world of work. Back packing in Thailand would have been amazing.

Other than that, it should have been "not to be a goth" because there isn't a photo of me between the ages of 17 and 21 (when I started work) that I don't look like an utter vampiric twit.

It would be nice to have a least once decent photo.

[flamingtoaster]

I didn't have a list of things to do by 21. Things I wish I had done - gone to University but financially I couldn't do it. (I did make up for it with the OU later though).

[MakeTeaNotWar]

I wanted to see the world and I wanted to come live in London which I had fallen in love with as a young teenager. Still lots and lots of the world to see but I've made a bit of a dent and lived 9 years in London. Of course those dreams have massively changed since then!

[DeepPurple]

I wished I had lived alone. Even if just for a few months. Instead I left home to live with DH!

I wish I had said yes to more invitations and just generally gone out more.

I really should have appreciated my figure more!

[GeekInThePink]

Live on your own
Travel
Sleep more- you won't get much sleep in years to come
Enjoy. Every. Minute
Go on girls holidays
Go to festivals
Don't be afraid to try and live your dream
Say YES
Eat more, your skinny thing-now is your chance!

[MummyBtothree]

I wish I had lived on my own for a while before I was 21 so I had time to enjoy my space and my own company and get to know who I was as a person before having children at 22.

[firawla]

I wanted to get married and have kids, which I did by 21. I think I would tell my younger self to travel more