MY BUCKET LIST: 100 Things To Do Before I Die
not my hand
Do you have a bucket list? What do you want to do before you die?
I usually have a small list of life goals banging around my head and bits written down, but I challenged myself to write it all out and was surprised by some of what came up. I chose 100 things because that’s how many posts I’ve done for this blog (this is the BIG # 100! YAR!), otherwise I’d have settled for maybe 50. Some of the list is comprised of half-crazed dreams that seem nearly impossible now, but would be swell to accomplish. Sure, I’ve just created more identifiable ways to fail. Good stuff.
I’ve divided my list into 5 groups: Learning, Creative, Travel, Adventure, Domestic. If I’d made the list 10 years ago, it would’ve included things I’ve done since, like seeing castle Neuschwanstein, lurking about Stonehenge, buying a house, visiting part of Asia (Taiwan), etc, so now I’d have more of a sense of completion to this point and the existing list would be shorter. Maybe in 10 years I’ll have knocked off a dozen more and will have replaced them (If I can survive a 5k race without dying from asthma, them maybe a 10k would be in order. Junk like that.). By the way, a few items I don’t think I’ll add are bungee jumping and skydiving, since I don’t want to die trying to check something off my death list. Maybe I’ll go mad in the future and add them. And serious rock-climbing. Am I an incredible chicken? Yes. Yes, I am. Accomplishing most of these things requires me to get off my lazy chicken butt and start doing it. So, the gauntlet has been dropped.
What’s at the top of your bucket list? Make your own list and let us know your favorites.
Learning Goals
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Learn a new brass instrument
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Learn a new stringed instrument
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Learn to play the accordion so I can annoy friends and loved ones (in a different way)
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Take the official IQ test before the mind starts going.
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Learn to play decently at cards/poker (I’ll have to work on my P-P-P-Poker face)
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Learn to play golf properly/get my own left-handed clubs
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Learn to play piano by ear/Be the Piano Man!
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Learn conversational Spanish (my 8th grade Spanish didn’t stick well)
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Study another language like German or French or Mandarin
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Learn to surf
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Learn to sail
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Study a martial art (Karate, Tai Chi, etc)
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Take an art class where I learn how to draw, paint, create visual junk
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Learn to juggle
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Do a thorough genealogy search (and determine if we are really related to Ben Franklin, Napoleon, and an Indian chief)
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Record oral histories of the older generations in my family (I’ve only done one so far)
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Travel the country/world to see gravestones of ancestors/relatives
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Attend family reunions for at least 2 branches of the family (eg Hinkles & Gottschalls)
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Learn debating techniques
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Give a speech to a large group (while awake and wearing more than underwear)
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Be able to identify more constellations (beyond Orion & the Dippers)
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Learn good storytelling techniques
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Read all the books on a snobby list of classics
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Be able to identify 10+ birdcalls
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Learn the main arguments for creationism
Creative Goals
27. Write at least once for a national/international magazine
28. Make a scripted home movie with a story line
29. Finish writing my Christmas Cantata (for a choir) & have it performed & recorded
30. Finish Writing my rock musical: music, lyrics, story
31. Write a screenplay for a movie (possibly for that rock
32. Publish at least one book
musical)
33. Design and landscape my backyard (possibly with help)
34. Start a magazine
35. Build a proper treehouse (not like that awesome bit of childhood at the grandparents’)
36. Record a semi-pro album
37. Perform a full set of my own music (+some covers)
38. Write a stand-up comedy act, even if I don’t perform publicly
39. Write several comedy sketches, enough to match an episode of SNL (or In Living Color or Kids in the Hall or Monty Python or Mad TV)
40. Perform the aforementioned sketches with friends in an improvised version of SNL. Videotape it. My band could be the featured music(could be just the sort of thing to organize over an extended Christmas holiday)
41. Write a script for a tv show
42. Design a family crest/coat of arms
43. Invent something & take out a patent
44. Become handy with some new dangerous tools (probably something that ends in -saw)
45. Build some fairly simple furniture without help from former felons or summer camp dudes
46. Build an instrument from a kit
47. Write a Christmas story
48. Write a non-Christmas hymn (another one, but one that doesn’t suck so much)
49. Design a Lord of the Rings amusement park for fun
50. Design a Christmas-themed amusement park for fun
- Terra Cotta Army of Xian, China
Travel Goals
- 51. Visit all 7 continents. Yes, this includes Antarctica.
52. Visit all US national parks
53. Visit every US state
54. See the pyramids & the Sphynx (Egypt, not Vegas)
55. Walk the Great Wall
56. Visit the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian and buy tacky souvenirs
57. Visit Beijing, China
58. See New England in full leaf-peeper season
59. Visit Machu Picchu, Peru
60. Visit the Taj Mahal, India
61. Visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia (carefully stepping around the landmines)
62. See the 7 Wonders of the world
63. Visit France
64. Visit Switzerland
65. Go back to Austria, but for longer than 2 hrs this time.
66. Sleep in a castle
67. Take a Euro-trip devoted to visiting castles & cathedrals (the 2 previous trips nearly qualify, but not really)
68. See Italy
69. Visit the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera
70. Visit Japan (see more than just the airport next time)
71. See the Acropolis in Greece
72. Visit Russia
73. See the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey (yeah, I called you a turkey)
74. Big heads on Easter Island, Baby!
75. Visit the Holy Land between bombings
Adventure Goals
76. Run in a 5k race without stopping partway through to get a rock out my shoe
77. Ride in a Hot Air balloon and/or a Zeppelin (possibly while singing “Stairway to Heaven” or “Immigrant Song” or saying stuff like “Oh, the humanity!”)
78. Walk longish segments of the Appalachian Trail
79. Take a cruise (I’m probably going to sign up for one in the next week)
80. Travel the Trans-Canada Hwy from coast to coast
81. Canoe the boundary waters or a waterway (but book woods with showers & toilets)
82. Travel by train across the US
83. Take a US roadtrip from coast to coast
84. Get SCUBA certified (if asthma allows)
85. Take flight Lessons
86. See the northern lights
87. Take a helicopter ride
88. Go whitewater rafting
89. Live in or travel around another country for a few months at a time
90. Take a proper cabin/lodge/ski vacation
Domestic Bliss Goals
91. Marry someone swell
92. Procreate
93. Become self-employed (make a living off my creative work for at least 1 year, but preferably always)
94. Get back under 200 pounds (and stay there)
95. Build my own house (by which I mean have someone else build it to my specifications)
96. Regain my 6-pack
97. Develop a unique recipe that’s pretty darn good
98. Grow a decent backyard garden by myself that survives
99. Learn to make at least 5 dishes from memory
100. Help plant an orchard (preferably mine on a large acreage)
The Secret word is Falafel
Other Lists
My 11 Favorite Christmas Albums
4 Ways to Screw Up a Perfectly Good Thing
A Quiz: Which is Your Type? A Pseudo-Cosmo Quiz
Stuff to Read
Children, Braid Your Nosehairs
Prophecy of the Tornado and the Trailer
Your Retirement Savings… in the Couch
Will Your Siblings Use Up the Good Names?
Every time you click an ad, an angel gets its wings.
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I have an accordion you can learn on. Even have the books. I could probably help you with the IQ thing too.
Comment by George — March 27, 2010 @ 8:56 am
Oh, you do have an accordion, don’t you? Cool cheese, Batgirl. And the IQ quiz- is that something psych people keep handy to secretly test cocky patients, so they can mail them low scores as a surprise and a treatment?
Comment by admin — March 27, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
I’m glad you didn’t add skydiving. I thought I was the only one that didn’t want to do that. It really is about the idea of jumping out of an airplane that high up that just bothers me. Maybe one day I’ll add it.
Overall, it is a really good list.
Comment by Steve — May 16, 2010 @ 2:57 pm
I love bucket lists! Just finished making my own. Yours here looks awesome.
Comment by Flo — September 3, 2010 @ 10:57 am