Okay, so the Today Show is doing this series on what to do before you die. They've compiled a list based on viewer response of the top 50 things people want to do before they die.
I have a list too. I call it my Someday List.
Someday I'll own a house.
Someday I'll travel the world.
Someday I'll date again.
You get the picture.
My someday list is long - much longer than 50 things - and I begin to wonder if maybe I'm not pursuing what's on the list aggressively enough. How does one go about checking things OFF the list? I mean, let's consider the limitations.
Unlike the Today Show - I don't have an unending supply of MONEY to do most of the things on my list (such as travel and buy a house). I don't have control over my career in the sense that I can't cast myself in whatever I please. I don't have control over my love life because I can't force somebody to like me (and I refuse to be somebody I'm not in order to get them to like me). Do I sound pessimistic? Self-defeatist?
Actually, I'm not. If I were, I would have thrown out the someday list a long time ago! I'm an optimist and believe I will be able to put check marks next to a lot of items. Sometimes, it's fun to look at the things I HAVE done.
I have traveled - more than many. I have been to England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico and easily half the states in the continental US.
I have worked as an actor - and though I haven't performed on Broadway, I have made people laugh, cry, and think.
I have loved - and lost - twice. No shame in that.
I have been to college. I have been to graduate school.
I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.
I have climbed Pikes Peak.
I have hiked the Grand Canyon.
I have explored the ruins of Tulum.
I have skied - both snow and water.
I have learned to sail - and capsize - and turtle - and recover - a small sailboat (the Wiggin family will now comment).
I have snorkeled a barrier reef off Key West.
I have ridden a horse and a motorcycle.
I have roller-bladed and ice-skated.
And so on and so forth.
Some of the things I have done don't seem like much to probably most of your reading this . . . but I've had so many more opportunities than so many people . . . I have to recognize them as such.
I have run a marathon. I have run five.
HUH? Is that really on the list? Well . . . it's on the Today Show's list!
And I'm now preparing to run my sixth. And guess what - in the process I get to check more things off my list! Hawaii. Checking out a volcano. Surfing. Para-sailing. A whole slew of adventures thought of and not.
I'm definitely living for today.
Hmmmm, I've only done 14 of the 50 things on the Today show's list. Guess that's not so bad (plus I could add quite a few of my own) and FTR I have done #44 (yes, I know that's way TMI...)
ReplyDeleteHaving been in that "perfectly good airplane," I can definitely say that we were much safer flinging ourselves out at 3,000 feet than staying inside the rickety trap!
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