You ever make a life list? Bucket list? I didn’t know that was a thing until the movie came out and I was like “damn, bucket list sounds much better than life list” but I made my decision so I’m sticking with it. I used to have one with a bunch of weirdo things on it but now I have one with…less…weirdo things on it? I was chatting with Eric Wang worst ang and Sam All best ll and a few others this week and my takeaway is that shit, I’m going to die alone so I might as well do all the things I want.
Here’s the list in no discernible order because well, thoughts:
- Do resume – send help, thx
- Visit all 50 states (driving through counts)
- Visit all 254 counties in Texas (lol nope)
Climb Mount Everest- I stayed in Breckenridge once for a few days and got altitude sickness at 8000′ and Everest Base Camp is at like 19K so lol nope.
- Into Thin Air
- Also cost and generally being in shape. Plus it’s cold.
- 7 continents
- Need to train for a half marathon in Antarctica…I’d be down with a 5k or something shorter. Like just walking around on it for a minute.
- Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia,
Europe,North America, South America
- 5 oceans
- Been in the Pacific, Atlantic. Need Indian, Arctic and Southern (but not swimming ’cause dumb)
- I didn’t know there were 5 until I saw a commercial last year
- Southern Ocean newest cean
- See Northern Lights
Be awake for 24 hours(sup GORUCK Heavy)- Various cities
ParisNew York City- London (layover so…maybe?)
- Berlin
- Moscow
Washington, D.C.- Rome
- Sydney
- Tokyo
Seattle
- Yellowstone (2017! BOOK IT)
- Go into SPACE
Eat a fancy meal- Polar Bear Plunge
- stuff and things
Where do you want to go today? Tomorrow? Next month? Year? What do you want to do? A lot of this was brought on by having a conversation about death. Last month our friend Momma Stump passed and it made me stop and think about death again. Did you live the life you wanted? Achieve all your dreams? Find happiness? Who knows? Hell, it’s my life, I guess I would know. Maybe, maybe not. I reckon it’s best to think about these things now, while you’re awake and conscious and able to think about it rather than to put it off later [note: make Will, living will and all that…later].
I changed my mindset about this sometime in high school or college, and this is embarrassing to admit, by reading one of those “fw:fw:fw:old people notes” emails that you’d always get and it would have lots of hokey advice like tell people you love and care about them, change your underwear, don’t save cologne for special occasions because every day is a special gift and shit like that. Very hokey but also…reasonable.
Damned if I don’t try to appreciate things daily.
Peter Andrada made a good post a few months ago about you living until whatever age and counting back as a countdown of sorts until you die. Do some math (or plug it into a handy online calculator) with the assumption of you living to 70 years old and I’ve essentially lived 50% of my life. From that, I’ve lived 12,630 days and if I die on my birthday at 70, it’s 12,939 days until I kick the bucket [edit: I’m not bummed or sad that I’m numerically halfway through my life, just something to acknowledge for this exercise. Thanks Joe!]. I’d better get after it, right after this nap.
I’m not going to tell you how to live your life but I will try because you’re not going to read this anyway so here goes: appreciate all the things in life because you are going to die. It might be from old age, it might be from some terrorist shitbag who will plow into you while you’re out celebrating. It doesn’t even have to be a terrorist. Somebody could be playing Pokemon and walk out into the street ahead of you can you swerve and end up in a ditch. Game over.
If someone is being mean to you regularly, you don’t need that shit in your life. You can fire them from your life. If I’m mean to you regularly, let me know and then fire me from your life. But keep in mind you can get fired, too. I’m going to fire a shitload of you people.
So go out and do all the things, or not, it’s your life.
Perhaps your life wants you to YELLOWSTONE 2017…maybe Belize, let me know!
duck said, One thing I don’t agree with is the “I’ve lived half my life” argument. From a purely numerical sense, sure, you’ve lived half your life. But really, how much of that did you have the opportunity to DO 90% of the stuff on your list? How much of that was under your control? I know a lot of privileged kids who visited every continent and swam in every ocean before they were 12. That wasn’t because they wanted to, or for the experience, but because their parents put them there.
Your life started when you turned 16, or 18, when you first really had the opportunity to do things for you and not just experience them tangentially. Yes you still only have the same number of days left to go, but don’t let yourself get overwhelmed or discouraged that you “have burned half your life” already. You haven’t.
In reply to duck, azzenco said, Also this http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html ! Thanks JON
azzenco said, That’s a really good point. I never really started doing cool things until about four years ago. Never really took the opportunity to travel and well, I didn’t know how to travel or get out there if I’m being honest. Now I’m willing to get out there and adventure.
I can see how that comes across as being discouraged now that you mention it, thanks. It wasn’t my intent. If I died now, I’d be pretty happy with what I’ve done just in the past few years. It’s been FUN and meaningful.
In reply to azzenco, duck said, And that’s what matters: when you had the opportunity to do “cool shit,” you did cool shit.
Rick said, Still love your writing. Reminds me of an outdoor writer Patrick McManus.
In reply to Rick, azzenco said, Thanks Rick! Glad you enjoy and I appreciate the comments. I’ll have to look up that writer.