At the time of writing, the Coronavirus Pandemic has claimed 1.7M lives. Truly horrible. Desperately grim statistics. Thankfully, there’s vaccines on the way, and being distributed as you read this. You may very receive a vaccine soon.
While I still have my health, my job, and my life, many of my friends lost their jobs, homes, and everything in-between. The lasting effects of this pandemic will likely be felt for the next several decades. I even have one friend who was forced into retirement. All of these tragic moments have been giving me serious contemplation lately.
My contemplations and reflections have been magnified lately by personal developments too. In October, I busted a femoral condyle thanks to a defect (also called Osteochondritis Dissecans) which meant surgery 😢. Surgery, a pandemic, being homesick and the unavoidable existential dread that follows, will get you thinking about mortality a lot. Needless to say, I am in desperate need of some optimism and hopeful things to look forward to. So, I began drafting a list. You could call it a Bucket List if you want, I’m not sure what else to call it. But, I started writing this list sometime before my surgery and have just been adding to it ever since. I’m sharing it here, because I hope others enjoy it too.
My Bucket List
- Watch the sunrise and sunset at the Grand Canyon
- Visit Machu Picchu and hike to the Sun Gate
- Swim in Iceland’s Blue Lagoon
- Never done any diving before, but I would love to learn so I can go scuba diving around a reef. Wouldn’t that be so cool?
- Visit Disneyworld at least once and see Epcot and Galaxy’s Edge
- Take a 16-day roundtrip journey across India with my brothers (yes, exactly like in Darjeeling Limited)
- I’ve never developed any sea legs, but would love to see a glacier or two before they’re all gone.
- Speaking of glaciers, visiting Antarctica is kind of off the table, but visiting Ushuaia, Argentina would be really rad.
- This one may not be for everyone, but I would certainly like to have children someday. I’ve become very envious of my pals who have kids. Apart from the fortune they spend raising them, and all the work it requires, it seems to be a great load of fun.
- I want to take piano lessons and learn how to play (finally)
- Carpentry, is a skill which I do not possess. My grandfather was a skilled engineer and carpenter, so I would love to follow in his footsteps in that regard. Also, it would just be cool to design and build furniture.
- See Daft Punk live in concert in person (fingers crossed they tour again one day)
- I want to take a transcontinental road trip from NYC to LA. As you can probably tell, traveling is a big theme for me!
- Volunteer with UNICEF
- Visit Osaka, Japan and eat as much food as possible
Well that’s my list so far. Maybe I’ll add more to it over time 😅 If you have a Bucket List share it with me below in the comments, I would love to read yours!
