Sunday, June 01, 2008
What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?
About five minutes ago I was asked a very good question. I didn't expect to find something so thought-provoking on the front page of Youtube, but pleasant surprises are always welcome. See, I was asked by the guys of The Buried Life: "What do you want to do before you die?"
The Buried Life is 4 regular guys on a mission to complete a list of "100 Things To Do Before You Die" and to help and encourage others to go after their own lists.
- The Buried Life
Sure, I've got things I want to do. I've got a profile over at 43 Things. I'm doing pretty well at some of what I think are the "lighter" goals - I've unlocked Redshift mode in Quantum Redshift, I've got a good length of scarf going (though I haven't knitted in a while), and I own all but one of the Ghibli movies. A few others are going to take some time - learning Japanese won't be easy - but it's a start.
Trouble is, I'm bound by financial constraints. I've got a lot of student debt to clear, and finding a well-paid job in my chosen industry is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I've been looking at secretarial and retail positions - I'm good with people, and I've got the experience - but I can't help but think that it's going to take a while to become financially stable enough to tackle some of my personal challenges.
(Which brings me to an excellent point, challenges aside. Remember Epic Win #4, my successful first-stage interview? It ended up as a Hugely Epic Fail. Management training scheme my ass. They wanted me to wander around other people's stores selling credit cards to the public. Worse still, they wanted me to work for commission only. The whole setup reeked of an old job of mine - begins with Z, ends in -enith - and after TWELVE hours of being treated like shit by the worst potential employer I could have come across, I stormed out and rejected all their phone calls. I would have left earlier, but for some reason I spent the day in Blackpool. Long story.)
I know that I want to get as much out of life as possible. It's been my personal philosophy since long before I heard of The Buried Life. But I guess I'd never really thought about how to go about it all before. The plans that I do have, albeit with the potential to rake in that phat cash, also require cash to get started. For the record:
- Plan A: become a qualified web designer and get a neat job
- Plan B: train as an electrician, in case times get rough
- Master Plan: Totally Top Secret. Only Pook knows what it is, but suffice it to say that it involves starting my own business, and, like all good Master Plans, has the potential to become Really Really Huge.
Even so, all these plans are means to an end - securing myself a comfortable living. The last thing I want to do in life is merely get by. Heck, one of the songs I wrote for my composition portfolio contains the lyric "this life is but a one-shot deal, you don't get another go". Going through life thinking you'll get a second chance at some point isn't living at all. I know that it's everyone's great wish to reminisce about their life well lived on their deathbed, but how many of us are proactive about this?
I can sense that this is starting to sound corny, so I'll go back to the idea of the list. My list at 43 things only has 13 goals on it right now - with 9 completed already, that makes 22. But TBL's list has a hundred things on it. Granted, some of these things are huge and might never be possible, even for them (see their #100). But I don't know if I'm limiting my list by setting my goals too realistically - perhaps even too low. It's weird for a big goofy dreamer like me talking about being too realistic about things, but this is another of my worries - I don't want to ever stop dreaming. I want to do crazy things. I want to sit the grandkids on my knee and tell them stories that they'll barely believe. Dammit, I want to skid into my grave on my pants screaming "what a ride!"
Hmmm. I think I'll make my list as wacky as possible. No doubt I'll post it once I've thought of a hundred things.
Labels: All About Joey, Deep and Meaningful
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