One of my friends recently showed me a list of the things he would like to do before he dies. “See the Eiffel Tower” was one of them. OK, that sounds reasonable. I’m more into the Pyramids myself, but the Eiffel Tower is nice enough.
“Learn to Scuba dive”. “Go skydiving”. Those are pretty good ones, actually.
“Go for a Bungee jump”. I did that once, and when people ask me how it was, I always tell them it is something I’m glad I did once, but that I will never do again. It is a worthy addition to a bucket list.
“Go to the moon”.
OK, my friend lost me there. The moon? I can appreciate that the view must be spectacular from up there, but it’s cold and dark and there are no good places for trail runs. Besides, don’t you make lists in order to be able to cross completed items off? Isn’t that the whole point of a list? Not to put a damper on things, but the chances of my friend going to moon are about the same as my chances of fitting into a size 32B bra.
My own bucket list is not as comprehensive as some other people’s. There are not, say, 100 things that I absolutely have to do before I die. And my list does not include things that I am never likely to achieve. I’d like, for instance, to be a contestant on Hell’s Kitchen, just for the pleasure of telling Gordon Ramsay to piss off, but that’s not on my bucket list because what are the odds of it ever happening?
No, my list contains a few things that I really, really want to do, that are achievable, and that I actually intend to do. Here is a sample of a few of them, in no particular order.
- Run a marathon. Someday I will do this. When my kids are a little older, and I am able to devote more time to training, I will get myself into really good shape and run a full marathon. I’m not sure which one, but possibly New York.
- Get into full-time writing. This is a long-term plan that will require much planning, but it what I want to do. I have finally realized, at the age of 41, what I actually want to do for a living.
- Meet in person the friends I only know online, who are real friends nonetheless. To name a few: Margie, Amy, Kerry, Ray, and quite a number of others.
- Travel to the very Northern part of Canada to see Aurora Borealis (a.k.a. Northern Lights). This is a beautiful phenomenon that has always intrigued me, and now I live in a country where it can actually be seen.
- Go on a cruise. I’ve never, ever done this, and I’ve always wanted to. Someday I will do it.
- Travel to Colorado to meet the parents of my friend Jason who was in North Tower on 9/11. I want to tell them what a wonderful son they had, what a good and true friend he was.
- Finish the fictional novel I started writing, AND get it published. It’s a good storyline, really.
- Run the Disney Princess Half-Marathon. Happens every year, in Disneyland, at the end of February. And it’s apparently TONS of fun.
- Weigh the same as I did when I was 30. OK, so I’m eleven years older now, I’ve had two kids since then, and I had a long period of inactivity that only ended a couple of years ago, but YES, it’s achievable!
- Stand on top of Table Mountain with my two boys. Someday I will take my kids to South Africa and show them where I came from. We will go up Table Mountain in the cable car, and we will stand there together feeling like we’re on top of the world.
