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A Buncha Things To Do Before You Die

Posted on by ursulav

So the other day, following my usual trail of internet bread crumbs, I ran across someone saying, flippantly, “Oh, well, something else to do before you die,” on the subject of Brazilian waxing, and that got me thinking.

I’m young. (Eleven days to thirty!) I’m single. I have a car, if not much disposable income. Now is a great time to knock a bunch of things off that shadowy list of Stuff To Do Before Expiring.

Thing is…can’t find a list. I know that “100 Things To Do Before You Die” goes around as a meme now and again, but couldn’t locate one. I know that there’s a book of that title, but it’s all travel stuff, which isn’t really feasible at the moment–and anyway, I was thinking of the little things, the small, flippant stuff like “eat sushi” or “get a Brazilian wax” that make one a marginally more well-rounded person–or at least a person with more anecdotes to share!

But hey, we’ve got what–twenty-five hundred people reading this blog? And we’re all smart people of impeccable taste, right? RIGHT?

So, O blog readers! What do you think are some things–not major, life-shaking, to-be-contemplated-gravely-in-advance things, but small-to-medium things that everybody should do before they die?

CAVEAT: By “everybody” we mean “people who don’t have a pressing reason not to,” not literally every human being on the face of the earth. There is no stigma to having a major reason NOT to want to do something. For example, one of mine would be “eat a weird species of meat,” but if you’re a vegetarian, you don’t have to get upset that I don’t consider it possible to be a well-rounded person without noshing on something with a backbone. It’s all good. (I would also probably put “smoke a joint” and “have a hallucination” somewhere on my list, but there are lots and lots of people who, for reasons of physiology, psychology, and/or morality wouldn’t or shouldn’t do that. Still, if you’ve got no reason not to, and in moderation….) We don’t have to agree with everybody’s list. These are suggestions, not commandments from on high. (Also, it’s okay to be gender specific. “Grow a beard,” might be great for men, not so much for women.)

CAVEAT THE SECOND: You don’t have to have done these to suggest them. Likewise, you can list something you’ve done already and just thought was a cool or well-rounded experience. Both are great. (Painful learning experiences, like “get falling down drunk,” are also valid, but may require appropriate labels.)

CAVEAT THE THIRD:  We’re not talking major stuff here. No “raise a child,” or “save a life,” or “find god,” or whatever. I’m mostly thinking stuff that you can do in an hour, or a weekend, or on a whim. (Yes, yes, I know,you can find god in ten minutes, but then you have to feed and water him, and change the litterbox, and y’know…)

So, without further ado, a relatively even mix of stuff I’ve done and stuff I might like to do (and a few I probably won’t do, but somewhat regret) before I die:

ride a horse
eat sushi
ride a camel
bake a cake
dye hair a weird color
get a tattoo
fire an assault rifle
ride in a helicopter
pet a tiger
get a brazilian wax
swim in the ocean
get something pierced
go tidepooling
eat an unusual species
volunteer at an animal shelter
write a love letter
write a poem
play a lengthy video game all the way to the end
have a facial
try to write a novel
place a personal ad
visit another country
get flowers
give flowers
attend a convention
travel alone
stay up to watch the sun rise
go camping
shave head
ride an elephant
grow a plant from seed
sit outside in a thunderstorm
walk in the rain until thoroughly soaked
sweat in a sauna/sweat lodge/thingy
shovel snow (Hey, I didn’t say they had to be unmitigatedly fun!)
get a massage
walk barefoot on a beach (not all beaches are appropriate for this.)
go fishing
swim nude
have sex in a relatively public place (preferably without getting caught!)
grow hair very long
cut hair very short
dance
collect eggs from chickens
take a spontaneous roadtrip
stop at a really dumb tourist attraction (i.e. Corn Palace, World’s Largest Ball of String…)
hike at dawn
stand behind a waterfall
drink a really expensive scotch

That’s fifty, and I’m out of immediate ideas. How ’bout you guys? Give me suggestions! What are the little dumb things that we all oughta try before we die?

ursulav

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