Life lists

When I went to South America late last year, I met up with a friend of a good friend of mine in Mendoza. We were both traveling through South America alone so appreciated the company for a few days of someone who spoke English. It’s amazing the things you get to talking about with someone you don’t know that well over bottles of Malbec on the beautiful sidewalk patios of Mendoza. My time in Mendoza is one of the fondest memories of my trip. Not just for the daily philosophical conversations over wine, but for the peacefulness I encountered and adventures which included paragliding and getting a tattoo hungover, 2 hours before I had to leave for the airport to make my way back home. But I digress….

One of the many conversations that were had between him and I were life lists. Yes, life lists, bucket lists, whatever you want to call them, seem to be all the rage these days, but it’s something most of us, at least informally, have contemplated. I’ve always had ideas of things that would be on my life list but I have to say, most of them involved trying something adventurous (going skydiving) or going to a specific place (overwater bungalow in Tahiti). When comparing our life lists, I realized how item specific my list was. Though his had a ton of adventurous things, there was a lot of things money couldn’t buy on his list. Such as being a parent, getting married etc… He also told me that he had written his down, if only to remember things that were, for at least a time, significant enough to contemplate. I’m still new to the concept of idea to written thing, so I was sceptical. And, while I was at it, thought that I’d add some non-material things to my list.

It was such a perfect time to contemplate such things since my trip to South America was to celebrate the fact that I survived such a turbulent (albeit short) marriage and my time in South America was to be introspective and get some rest. So I wrote. And wrote. And I was surprised that I ended up with over 50 things on my list and over half of them were “experience” based rather than an activity/place/adventure.

I have to say, I surprised myself at some of my answers (feeling good about my body, become fluent in Spanish, be in love with someone who is in love with me back). A lot of the items I can control (owning an original piece of art, volunteering in a 3rd world country for an extended period of time, having one year income in savings) And a lot of them are up to fate (having a balanced relationship, being a parent)

To not lose sight though, I also wrote a list of things I’ve already done to appreciate everything I’ve experienced so far. I have no idea whether I’ll get to experience even half of the items on the list, but it sure was a great experience to think about it and get it all down! Now, if only I could stop adding to the list…