This morning, I received news of an old coworker I knew fairly well, who killed himself on Monday. He was 24 years old, and decided his life was not worth living anymore. He was a quiet, shy guy who rarely went out, didn't go to college, never traveled, and never had a real girlfriend. It got me thinking about all the experiences he missed out on. He never had sex, never triumphed over a huge challenge, never saw another country, never knew a thrill or endorphin rush or felt immense pride in anything. He lived in a safe world of known quantities, and life quietly passed him by. Focus: life is short. What's on your "bucket list"? What are your plans for getting there? What have you already checked off it? Just a few random items off mine: - Climb Kilimanjaro - Swim with a giant octopus - Visit Antarctica - Take lessons for rally racing - Live in Australia I checked off visiting the Galapagos last year, and skydiving a couple years before that. Alt-Focus: What do you know you'll never get to experience?
I'm always curious about these "bucket lists" - are these things you actually want to do, or are they just sort of hypothetical? I watch that Buried Life show on MTV, and it seems that those guys just come up with outrageous shit and then raise all kinds of hell trying to make it happen. I am truly amazed at how successful they have been, and how they haven't gotten arrested or in serious trouble for some of the stuff they do. I don't think "Officer, we just really, really wanted to do that" is a plausible excuse...
Well, my bucket list is stuff I actually want to accomplish. Seems pointless to create a hypothetical list of stuff you want to do but know you won't be able to.
I've actually thought about this at length, because in my opinion a person's life is judged based on his or her wealth of experiences. I try to keep my goals realistic: -Climb the 58 Colorado 14ers, Mt. Rainier, Aconcagua, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Denali, and Cho Oyu (Mt. Everest is too expensive, unless I win the lottery or something) -Live in a foreign country for at least a year, before I'm 30 -Write a book that gets published, in any genre -Travel by foot or bike across a foreign country -Go on a rum tour of the Caribbean on a small sailboat, sans paid guide -Retire in a beach house in North Carolina -Learn fluent French (I'd choose another less-gay language, but I already have a solid base from high school and college) -Go on one adventure-based and one relaxation-based vacation a year, even if it's only a road trip -Serve as a mentor to someone -Marry a dream girl, not someone for whom I'm settling There are a few more, but you get the idea. If I accomplish these things, I'll be happy when I die. I think they're all within reach.
Bucket list: 1) Put out an album of some sort. This will be hard because while I played piano for 12 years, I had little theory knowledge, and I can barely improvise. I play around on the guitar now and I keep telling myself that one summer I'm going to sit down and put out an album of some sort with a friend or two. 2) Live in Germany/Europe for 2 years of my life. This is hopefully going to happen in the next 5 years, since I am trying to go to graduate school there. My entire Dad's side of the family lives in Germany, and I was born there as well so this is a connect with my heritage and family sort of deal. 3) Climb to the top of one of the the world mountain peaks. I don't want to restrict myself to one mountain, but I feel like this has to be one of the ultimate adrenaline rushes. 4) Befriend a somewhat famous celebrity. I want to be able to go to bars, say I'm friends with this guy/girl, have someone call me out on it, and then win a bet by calling up the celeb and having them on speaker for a bit. I know, I'm an exciting dude. 5) Play with a pair of DD boobs. This is just depressing, because I always end up with girls with smaller tits ... biggest I've had the please of messing around with were C's. This is definitely obtainable as soon as I go out to bars and go actively hunting for them. This list was thought up off the top of my head, but they are all obtainable and should be fun working towards. I'm especially excited about the music album, which would be great if I could pull it off.
My list largely revolves around career goals (I'm in college, what do you expect?) but here's a few: 1. Earn a livable wage from basketball: I'm most of the way there on this one, but I mean enough money to support a family, pay off my loans, and pay all the bills. As of now, it's just enough to keep my head above water. 2. Teach the game in another country 3. Meet a woman who can appreciate my dead-on impression of JFK from Clone High. Still single ladies! 4. Earn at least a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 5. Be able to make damn good chili, wings, and ribs. A few things I've been able to cross off: 1. Make a 3 pointer at Madison Square Garden 2. Meet someone who is in the hall of fame in their field. 3. Hook up with a girl with a facial piercing
My favorite items from my bucket list include events or situational experiences: -Attend Oktoberfest -Attend Mardi Gras -Celebrate New Year's Eve in Tokyo and then fly back to LA and celebrate it again within 24 hours -Have sex with a celebrity -Have a sex video featured on the homepage of YouPorn (this would attest to my sexual prowess, lack of physical eww factor and hot female partner)
1. Publish a book. 2. Have my name in the masthead of a magazine. (Which I've technically already done, but that's because the mag was nice enough to list their interns. I want to do it again with a more impressive title.) 3. Subcategory of travel bucket list: Argentina, Spain, South of France, Italy, Germany 4. Hike the Adirondack Trail: I don't want to hike the whole thing (and know that I probably wouldn't be physically able to) but it's been a dream of mine for years to spend about a month one summer hiking a section of it. I think the Massachusetts stretch would be fun and doable. No one believes that I can do it, so that's part of the motivation too. (I figure if Bill Bryson can then so can I.) 5. Buy a "fixer-upper" (either a townhouse or a house in the country) and then fix-it-up with my strapping young husband. 6. Teach a writing workshop, which may or may not be related to no.6 7. Spend some chunk of time doing something meaningful abroad: I spent a semester interning at a woman's shelter where I taught writing and arts classes, organized field trips to museums and galleries, and planned their first art show and it was probably my favorite thing that I've done in my life so far. I've always wanted to be one of those people who can casually say a phrase like "When I was teaching the orphans to read in Nicaragua back in my twenties..." or whatever. I've toyed with a bunch of ideas, but it's usually some variation of teaching English, or doing something with the arts, or helping various women's issues causes. Things I've gotten to cross off the list: 1. Gotten a byline. (These have just been with little 500 word reviews and profiles, or online, so another thing on the bucket list is to publish a feature article.) 2. Attended a fashion show at New York Fashion Week. (Although I would've enjoyed being able to go to one "in the tents" at Bryant Park. That's one thing that will never happen because they've changed to Lincoln Park.) 3. Being able to call myself a professional writer, and also a professional dancer. (I was hired for a new local troupe in high school that was dismantled before we ever got to perform, but she still paid us for the months of practice. It wasn't much, but getting that check was so freaking cool.) 4. Went to Paris. 5. Lived in New York City. Thing I won't be able to do: I've always really wanted to be the little family genealogist and construct a family tree and get a history and biographies down about my dad's side of the family. I just really want to know our story. But everyone's dead except for my dad and his sister and her family and neither of them know a whole lot. They don't even know that much about my great-grandparents because they were they ones who came here from Eastern Europe and they refused to talk about anything before coming to America. neither my dad nor my aunt even have their facts straight about which country they were from. So, clearly the story's really juicy but I can't see how I would ever be able to find out anything about it at this point.
Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with your friends here, since the entire thing is in New York. Coincidentally I want to bag all the 4,000+ foot peaks in the Adirondacks. I've got about ten so far so there's a lot of work left, but so long as my buddy still keeps inviting us back up there every summer and we keep hitting 3-5 peaks a trip I think I can do it. Other than that I've accomplished most of what I set out to do other than completing the actuarial exams (which I'm only doing for money, not pride) and raising a family. So yeah, I'd say I'm pretty successful... or boring.
1. Save a man's life. (Possible, as I'll be getting deployed in about a year) 2. Complete a triathlon. (Ironman from the other thread) 3. Complete a marathon. (Ironman again) 4. Everest. (Crazy achievement) 5. Fly Mach 1. (If I get the chance, I'm jumping on it)
1. Go skydiving 2. Sit courtside at an NBA game. I'm not a huge Bill Simmons fan, but he's spot on when he says those are the best seats in professional sports. 3. Learn to scuba dive and see some cool shit underwater. 4. Write and publish a book. 5. Go to the Running of the Bulls or the Tomatina festival. 6. Eat at a Michelin 3-star restaurant 7. Drive a car 150 mph. For safety's sake, it should probably be on a track. 8. Accomplish something great by myself or as part of a team. I'm on my way towards the team one, though my contribution will be decidedly small. 9. Find someone I love who loves me back. Spend the rest of my life with her.
Live in Alaska Throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain Swim in all 4 Oceans Get Published Swim with the dolphins Attend ComicCon Swim with (baby)Sharks (There is a section of Disney World where you can do this, but i pussed out while i was there.) See the Anne Frank Museum (Amsterdam) See the Rocky Mountains Visit a Major Film Festival
1) Tour breweries in Belgium/Germany 1a) Go to Oktoberfest 2) Make my own beer 3) Travel, travel, travel - go to Australia, French Polynesia, anywhere 4) Roadtrip drive across the country, or even half way across the continent to somewheres like Texas 5) Check out ghost towns in rural Canada/America 6) Make my own bbq sauces - that's probably going to happen this summer 7) Live in Quebec or France and speak only in French - actually, already did that in Quebec, was insanely fun. Hot chicks, awesome beer and poutine. 8) My life is boring.. um.. sample local beers in every community I go to. I already do that though. 8a) Have a beer with the brewmaster at Unibroue, dieu de ciel or rogue. those guys know good beer.
Live in San Francisco for a year Live in New York for a year Live in London for a year Go to Vegas with enough money to be worth the trip See the Eiffel Tower Cockslap a PUA Publish a Book that sells enough copies to impress people at parties Get under 12% body fat Strict back squat 500kgs without killing myself Learn to play a musical instrument well enough to jam with musicians who I respect, without embarrassing myself. Get decent at a proper sport I'm confident that I'll see the Eiffel tower before I kick off. The rest of them? Probably wishful thinking.
It's hard to nail down one specific list, there are always things to add: Build my own airplane or helicopter -Finish my pilots license -Fly aerobatics Live in Germany or Spain for a year Skydive Build my own house Travel through all 7 continents Learn a new language Build/Design something that people get a lot of use out of Climb El Cap Alt-Alt-Focus: What have you done from other people's bucket lists? I've thrown a coin in the Trevi Fountain, been to Oktoberfest, toured breweries in Belgium, seen the Anne Frank Museum. . .
I've never really thought about this stuff or bothered to write one of these lists, but I can think of a few things off the top of my head. This is the stuff that I think is actually attainable. It's simple stuff and it's not that I have low expectations for myself, I am just pretty content with the simple things in life. Go to the real Oktoberfest in Munich. Go on the Jam Cruise. Go to one of Phish's weekend festivals (Like the Great Went, IT, Festival 8, etc). Build a "Man Cave" in a house that I own. Preferably in a basement, with a minibar with at least 1 beer tap and a very respectable home theater setup and a really comfortable sofa. See The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and The Disco Biscuits in concert. Learn to cook really well. Go to a nerd-culture-related convention. E3, Comic-Con, PAX, BlizzCon, etc. Own (either buy or receive as a gift) a very nice bottle of Scotch, a single malt over 20 years old. Go to Las Vegas and stay in a really nice suite. See the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. Follow a band on tour, and see them play at least 3 concerts in a row. (Most likely Umphrey's McGee) There are also some things that I've thought would be nice to do, but I know are very unlikely will ever happen: Live on the beach in the Caribbean (or somewhere tropical, Hawaii, etc) and tend bar for a year. Pub Crawl across Europe. See Pink Floyd in Concert. See Led Zeppelin (what's left of them) in concert. I'm not a writer, so I'll never write a book, but being a software engineer I would like to write a program or develop an algorithm or programming method or something that is recognized or used outside of whatever company I am working for. This is much more attainable than the other ones on this part of my list, but I'm still not sure if it'll ever happen. Then there are the things that I would put on this list that I have actually done. See Phish in concert (Denver '03 and Atlanta '10). Go to a major music festival (Bonnaroo '05). Get a post graduate education. Go to a Major League Baseball game. Huh, that last list is way too short, there has gotta be some stuff that I'm just not thinking about. Oh well.
Upon reflection, I realize I don't really have any "long range before I die" kind of things I want to do, I've only got a few things that I want to do within the next 5 years or so and am actively working on. -- compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona as a driver (currently scheduled for 2013) -- go on an Antarctic cruise (next year, knock on wood) -- sell a software company to make "you now find me attractive" money (2014?) -- write a sci-fi book, get it published
This is a great exercise for motivation and optimism and such. - Teach abroad in Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea, and the UAE. - Get a well-defined six pack. I've gotten to decently defined but never a hardcore one. Vanity is great. - Between squats, deads, and bench lift a combined 1000 lbs. - Get a hot, sane girlfriend and have an actually functional relationship. - Never have a soul-sucking job. - Pay off all student loans. - Run a half marathon. - Spend quality time chilling with a hot girl on a white sand beach. - Drink a real lot of nice booze. - Consistently eat very healthy. - Become a competent chef. - Read a fuckload of books. - Avoid buying a house, having kids, and getting suckered into a religion for as long as possible. - Learn how to stay very relaxed on a whim. Alt I've done some pretty cool stuff. Fucked a model, coin in Trevi fountain, fallen in love with a hot girl in Italy (reciprocated), hiked through jungles in the Dominican Republic, debated in front of CEOs and state senators, travelled to almost half the states in the US which include most major/obvious tourist attractions (Disney World, NYC, Vegas, etc), spent two weeks in Israel, toured Rome and the Vatican, played with DD titties many a time, white water rafted, sea kayaked, glacier hiked, spelunked, climbed to the top of several mountains, travelled extensively throughout the Pacific Northwest, and eaten a fuckload of filet mignon. I am so privileged to have this many amazing experiences at age 19, and all the prospects of cool new adventures is what gets me up in the morning.