Bucket List

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:

1. Were alive,
2. Had no previous or current convictions,
3. Did not have children, and
4. 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…