So, I started writing my bucket list.
- Watch the Ball Drop in New York City.
- Watch ‘Ol Faithful
- Play basketball vs. NBA player
- Attend the NBA or WNBA All-Star Games
- Go to Disneyland…
Correction, I have always had a bucket list, but I started to actually write it down.
- Get my Masters
- Start a Foundation/Company (Non-Profit)
- See Mount McKinley
- Compete a Bodybuilding Competition
- See the Iditarod…
I first started to write down the things that I have always wanted to do and completed.
- Stay in a 4-star hotel
- Eat at a top of the Line restaurant
- See the MLK Memorial
- Get a passport
- Fly an airplane…
Then I realized that I have had a pretty good life with a ton of positive experiences.
- Go to Hawaii
- Watch a Cirque du Soleil show
- Buy a tailored suit
- Walk across the Edmund/Pettus Bridge
- Go to an ethnic festival…
Experiences that many people live their entire life and never have the opportunity to do.
- Get into a Hall of Fame
- See MLK Church
- Go on a Civil Rights Trip
- Stand in the spot that MLK gave “I Have a Dream” Speech
- Hike a Mountain…
But then, I realized that my list kept growing as I got older and had access to more was of funding my adventures.
- Become a Black Belt
- Have a structure/scholarship named after me
- Own a BMW
- Buy a Rolex
- Become a Pokémon Master…
I also noticed that I have a shit-ton of things that I still want to do.
- See the Great Wall of China
- Go to Comic Con dressed up as a comic book character
- Watch a Premier League Game
- See the Gate of No Return
- Drink Beer in Germany…
The older I get, the bigger the world becomes. The older I get; I have more responsibilities that derail me from checking some of these things off.
- Walk across hot coals
- Take the kids to Disneyland
- Stay at the The Kakslauttanen Hotel
- See Stonehenge
- Go to Cuba and smoke a Cuban Cigar…
Here is my dilemma: I grew up in an environment where it was worth a celebration if you, at the age of 25:
- Were alive,
- Had no previous or current convictions,
- Did not have children, and
- Graduated with a college degree.
Yes, it sounds funny. But those are serious aspirations for a group of Americans. The problem is, once you get to the age of 25 and have met and surpassed those goals, there is a ton of confusion on what to do next. I have been so narrow-sighted about accomplishing those goals (ones that many unfortunately do not meet and/or take for granted), that I failed to see just how big the world actually is.
So, why not now? I, now that I am older and have a career, should be able to do many of the things that I want?
Not so fast.
For starters, I have children and it is damn near impossible to find someone who will care for them while I am on an excursion. Side note: There is no way in the hell that my wife will let me take a “life goal” trip while she is at home with the kids; not happening. Also, it is too damn expensive and too damn painstaking ape-shit to take our entire family on a plane. So, for now, my plans to see the world and experience different things are on hold.
For the items that require a purchase (own a BMW, own a Rolex, become a blackbelt), the older the children are, the more those things seem like they will never happen. Really?! Buy a Rolex?! I spend that same amount of money paying for travel team, camps, concessions, and equipment.
It looks like I will have to put some of these ventures on the backburner until retirement.
If there will ever be such a thing…
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