Hey, folks. Today’s Daily Prompt is all about bucket lists. You know, the list of stuff you want to do before you die? I don’t know about you, but mine seems to get longer every time I think about it. Here’s a (work in progress) list:
- Earn my master’s degree, and least a few more bachelor’s degrees.
- Learn many languages, most likely Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, and French for starters.
- Learn how to drive. (I really don’t want to, but I’m going to have to.)
- Learn a martial art. (My college freshman jiu-jitsu course was a long time ago.)
- Learn coding, either in terms of sites or apps.
- Learn how to create digital art.
- Learn how to read music.
- Learn how to horseback ride.
- Relearn Calculus and continue beyond it. (MIT has courses for independent study)
- Read at least one novel a week. (I usually have a couple on hand.)
- Write and publish a novel. (Hopefully winning a Nobel Prize for Literature?)
- Review 1,000 games. (I’m at 702 now.)
- Visit all seven continents. (I’ve only got South America, Australia, and Antarctica left!)
- See at least one new country a year. (I’ve managed this three years in a row, Italy is coming up in a few months.)
Visit an active volcano. (Visited Kilauea in December 2014)- See snow fall.
- Celebrate Holi.
- Participate in La Tomatina.
- Participate in the Taiwan Lantern Festival.
- Visit the Pyramids at Giza.
- Visit Hagia Sophia.
- Visit Easter Island.
- Visit Stonehenge, preferably during an equinox.
- Visit the Burj Khalifa.
- Visit the Taj Mahal.
- Visit Petra.
- Visit Angkor Wat.
- Visit Santorini.
- Visit Vatican City. (This might be happening soon.)
- Meet the Dalai Lama.
- Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway.
- Stay in Finland’s Kakslauttanen igloo hotel and see the aurora borealis.
- Stay in the Rangali underwater hotel in the Maldives.
- Return to Paris and explore the Catacombs.
- See Japan’s Nabana No Sato, Shibuya, Mt. Fuji, and all of its castles.
- See Machu Picchu. (This one almost happened this year!)
- See Iguazu Falls. (See above.)
- See Victoria Falls.
- See the Hunan province.
- See Holland’s flower fields.
- See the Amazon and Sahara.
- See Uluru.
- See the DMZ.
- See the polar ice caps.
- Participate in a research expedition. Classifying new species in the Mariana Trench, archeological digs in Europe or Asia, etc.
- Visit ALMA.
- Visit CERN.
- Visit Pic du Midi.
- Watch all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films.
- Go skydiving.
- Earn a pilot’s license.
- Ride a hot air balloon.
- Walk the Great Wall of China.
- Climb all the major mountains of the world. If I can only choose one, then:
- Climb Mt. Everest. If I can’t make it to the top, then I want to see the mountain at the very least.
- Learn how to play an instrument, preferably the guitar.
- Get a tattoo.
- Watch a space shuttle launch. (Or to go space myself!)
- Experience zero gravity.
- Finish a marathon. (Bay To Breakers is probably the closest I’ll get.)
- Donate to or create a charity.
- Do volunteer work abroad.
- Attend Comic Con, E3, and compete in EVO.
- Start a gaming/review channel on YouTube.
- Do voice acting for a video game or anime.
- Invent/discover something that would be beneficial for society.
- Have an astronomical object or theory named after me.
- Restore the old family house.
- Further expand my personal library.
- Find a house big enough to store my personal library.
- Retire in Cinque Terre. (Open to other suggestions, though!)
It seems like a lot, I know. Kind of far-fetched, too. But looking through some other people’s bucket lists, I’ve now realized that I’ve already done a ton of weird and awesome stuff. I’ve seen most of the major landmarks and buildings here in the States, been to a dozen countries, visited a Buddhist temple in Thailand, fought a fire, lived in two countries, went to the Eiffel Tower and Versailles, was a pallbearer, camped out in the Sierras the old-fashioned way, gone on a cruise, went to Chichen Itza, ate durian, bought goods in a kasbah, spent a weekend on Alcatraz, grew a garden and trees, lead a wedding procession twice, graduated from college without loans…the list keeps going and going. Judging by everything else I’ve thought up, I’m nowhere near finished.
What’s on your bucket list?
Polymathically 