The Bucket List....
I am changing the nature of this blog. Whatever it was, is no longer.As of today, I am setting out on a mini-journey that will only exist insofar as I record it here for the next three years. What is the mission? To accomplish. Things. I guess "accomplish" may not be the appropriate term as some of these really have very little point other than occurring for the sole purpose of me selfishly being able to answer "yes" if anybody ever asks if I've ever ____.
I'm having a thought: Maybe life would be simpler if you do something just for the sake of doing it and attribute a meaning to it after-the-fact instead of trying to find a purpose in order to determine whether or not to do it. Maybe...
So yes. Grand gestures and deep meanings aside, this list was developed in the course of two hours at a menial part-time job, being paid $8.25 an hour to hang out with two aspiring actors, in NYC, at the (nicer) gym offered by my jailer institution NYU, approximately one month after entering the 22nd year of my life (and incidentally, approximately one month before my pseudo-freedom of graduation), just so that by the time I am 25, I will feel slightly more adequately equipped for life because I have these specific "stuffs" under my belt, than I would have had I not guilted myself along for three years to do them. <<< most exhaustive and yet informative single sentence. ever.
So what is this "stuffs" you ask?
1) Knife-throwing
Honestly, I have always felt that once I perfect the art of knife-throwing, my life will be 50% complete. Without sounding too ambitious, I would like to kill a fly by knifepoint. Needless to say, countless hours will show me ludicrously throwing sharp objects at a wall with more clattering noises of knives dully dropping on the floor than the satisfying "thud" of the point embedding nicely into the wall... but we'll see who's ludicrous when I'm able to school anybody in a knife-throwing showdown one drunken night when I'm out with some friends. Three years of preparation for that one night is a completely reasonable justification. Totally.
2) Date a British/Irish/Scottish boy
Well, ok. This one is completely superficial because I want to just spend some time being washed in any one of these accents conversing for hours on end. I will be realistic though. Most likely I will not be washed in the accent because I'll probably be talking so much they won't have room to show off the accent but whatever. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Because we will get there....
3) Be mysterious
Some say an impossibility. I say, catch me on a day when I'm seriously traumatized and there is a tiny possibility that I can fake it. Mystery = Hidden/Secretive/Enigmatic and let's be real. I'm none of those. But perhaps, I will have my day when I am spacing out and in that brief accidental silence, somebody sees me and thinks "wow, she's so mysterious..." Note to self: develop an effective formula for creating "shroud of mystery" and apply until successful.
4) Get a small tattoo
Despite the "oh sure, be like everybody else and get a tattoo, skank" attitude that freely floats around out there in this wonderfully kind world... I don't see the harm in this. Given, the tattoo will need to be well placed and well planned. Tramp stamp is not what I am going for so I feel the skank factor reduces significantly at that point. I have an idea, but as this will be on me forever I give myself three years to truly contemplate. However at the end of three years, the decision will not be "to tat or not to tat" because as you can see by the subheading, it is to actually get a tattoo therefore by three years, I will have had to figure out what image will grace my body for the next 60 years of my life. No pressure.
5) Be in a film
Now you're really scoffing. Hear me out. Nowhere does it say a "famous" film. So shut your disbelieving negative mouth. I figure, I'll just make an appearance in a friend's mini film project and it will forever be out there in the universe. Particularly awesome because it will be in my prime, before I start getting all old-people haggy. I think it's a pretty excellent idea {pat self on the back} yeah....
6) Become certified for scuba-diving
The motivation for this is simple. I want to be somewhere with piercingly blue waters, for long enough to hang around all day in the water looking at awesome fish, and have somebody sign a document stating that should I ever want to purchase a ridiculous amount of equipment and take it with me every time I go on vacation, I am able to go exploring abandoned pirate ships without a babysitter. Like I said, simple.
I have compiled an ultimate reading list that I shall post at a later date. It consists of a little over the titled "250" and is comprised of literature from throughout history ranging from the classics to all-time popular favorites. Most are guaranteed to be tedious and extremely difficult, but that will make the easy reads all the more sweeter when I cross it off the list. I'm thinking I'll emerge out of my 24th year as a kind of Genius. Yes, with a capital "G."
8) 100 days of Happiness
No, this is not me being "rainbows and sunshine." That's actually the end-goal. I am challenging myself to blog everyday for one hundred days documenting one thing about that day that I am grateful for and happy about. This is my deliberate attempt to stop from being such an aggressive and cynical human being. While I love myself no matter how I feel, I tend to love myself exponentially more when I'm in a loving mood. So it'll be a kind of "Where's Waldo" game with myself where everyday I'll have to actively look to see "Where's the Happiness" from that day. My hope is that by the time I can tick this off my Bucket List, I will be able to take notice of everything I am happy about and grateful for like second nature.
9) 300 days of new recipes
One day I will be so adept at cooking and mixing flavors that I'll come up with 300 new recipes but it won't be in the next three years. This is just to make a habit of getting in the kitchen and truly indulging in a favorite, yet underdeveloped, hobby of mine. So the challenge is to find 300 different recipes and make an active effort of cooking all of the new and interesting recipes in three years. That shouldn't be too bad... if I count desserts. I haven't decided on that yet....
10) Learn a new language
Of course everybody has this on their Bucket List. So what makes me think I'll be able to do it when so many people fail? Three words: Pirated Rosetta Stone. That's right, when I've got a copy of the most successful language teaching software at my fingertips in 26 different languages for free, I figure I'm at a huge advantage compared to those who put this on their Bucket List, realize it's going to cost them a pretty penny and change their minds. The only difficulty will be to remain diligent and keep up. But that applies to most of these "stuffs" so therein lies the challenge, and the point of this blog.
So there are the "stuffs" that will be consuming my hours when my hours are not being consumed by eating, sleeping, and earning money somehow to facilitate the eating and sleeping. "Too difficult" you cry! "Impossible" you shout! "You'll burn yourself out" you warn. You may be right, but then again, you really don't know me very well do you?
3 comments
Write commentsHmmm...I have a question: What was your criteria for choosing these specific ten? I see a pattern, but it is disturbed by two or three of the goals.
ReplySimply just to say that I have done them. I don't really believe they're specific at all, my options were limited because they needed to be feasible within the next three years. Otherwise I would have things like "sky diving certification" and "climb Mt. Everest" on there as well. Traveling was limited, and acquisition of things was limited as well as extreme activities mainly because there is only so much money and time I will be able to devote to my bucket list while I'm also going on with my actual life. An important factor when determining the list had to do with how far I would have to go to accomplish them. Only a few require that I go any further than my neighborhood, and only one includes actual travel. I wanted a concise list- nothing extravagant and overtly idealistic...
ReplyNow, what is this pattern you see?
The pattern is you, my dear.
Reply