100 Things To Do Before You Die!

100 Things To Do Before You Die!

Things to Do List

I turned 25 today! It has been 7 years since I have been: eligible to vote, buy porn magazines and legally do what the heck I want.
It has been 4 years since I have been legally allowed to marry in India and drink in the US, so what's the big deal about 25? The insurance companies seem to know better - a male cannot be trusted to be responsible till he turns 25. I have now crossed that last threshold of maturity and wisdom that accrues by age. I will not only pay a significantly smaller amount of car insurance to State Farm, but by all accounts (apart from my parents) can now call myself a 'mature adult'.

After being accepted in mature adulthood, I must stop and think about the quarter of a century already gone and reminisce upon some of the things I have done in my reckless youth. Overall, it was splendid and I have very few regrets. Though, I really wish I had spent a night in jail as a teen for some minor misdemeanour. What an anecdote that would have made. The quixotic arrogance of adulthood at 18 seems laughable now. At 18, I felt there were just a couple of things more that I needed to know and I was set. Now, I realise how wrong I was. I now know there is so much more to know. There is much bullshit around. To most of life's questions people don't have answers. Black may not always be black. Humans may not always behave like humans. Despite all the evil men, the injustice and inequity there out there there is hope and people with a sense of justice.I still believe in what Hemingway said:
"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for."
I think about the future and especially, the next quarter. I shudder at the thought that I am already halfway to 50! I am not a worrier to the extent of
Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole, though sometimes I might sound like one. Marriage, fatherhood, scaling the ladder, keeping up with Joneses, mid-life crisis and other mundane things are predicted and expected of me. I would hate to see my life simply moulded, fitted and looking like another in the line of products from an assembly line. The inevitable will happen, there is no escaping that.
Perhaps, if I was younger I would have become a 'rebel-for-the-heck-of-it' and shunned the above. I cannot tell what kind of cards Fate will deal in years to come, and life could be the opposite of the one predicted. In any case, life should be lived without regrets and there are a bunch of Things I Wish To Do Before I Die and I have now started writing them down on 'The List'. For a lark, I looked up some of the lists other people have made and they threw up pretty interesting stuff. On the Forbes site, I found a great quote:
Jose Marti named the things that every man ought to do before he dies, the list did not include "Liberate a country." The hero of Cuban independence named three
more important tasks: Plant a tree, write a book, have a son.
Some of the most common aspirations of people in addition to Jose Marti's tasks were sky-diving, running a marathon, making a round-the-world trip, learning to play an instrument, and learning to ballroom dance. Surprisingly, none of them had the barometers of 'making it' i.e. becoming wealthy, successful or being famous. There were things like 'teach someone illiterate to read', 'give to charity - anonymously'. On one of lists was the not-so-unbelievable, but still funny item - Forgive my parents. Hah! I want to truthfully know how many of us are ready to do that so soon. I have added it to my list, and hopefully I should get around to doing it by the time I am 50!
I have had no real regrets so far. I have slept under the stars, play an instrument, driven across the breadth of the US in a car, seen Clapton and Dylan live, showered in a waterfall and done many wonderous things, but 'there are miles to go'. Even if I 'try' to do all the stuff on the ambitious 'List', I know - it will be a life without regrets.