DanielG - 2012-09-05 7:36 PM Since I was a kid I decided
I did not want to turn 50 and say, "I wish I had..." anything. I'm 46 and I've done damn near everything I've set my sights to do. I keep having to come up with new stuff.
Hey, hey, HEY - 50 is NOT old! It is a perfectly respectable age.
I set a goal when I was around 30 that I would try to do something new every year. On average, I have kept up - some years taking up 2 or 3 things, some years not so many. But overall, I hope I never run out of ideas of things to do or try.
So, a couple of years ago, for example, I set a summer goal of seeing the top grossing new release every week from the beginning of May through Labor Day. Last year, I set out to take at least one photograph every year. I've taken up new sports, built things that I never knew how to do before, learned all kinds of new things. Some things end up being a one-time deal (hot air ballooning was too boring; mountaineering was too hard for the pleasure/pain ratio). Others had time limits built in, and taught me new things.
I would still like to go hang-glide, parachute out of a plane, go on a photo safari. I want to see another foreign country with one of my kids as my guide and translator (daughter #2 will be going to Egypt in a year for a special studies program). I want to introduce a grandchild to the outdoors (which, given the current single statuses of my girls, may be a ways off).
This thread reminds me of a joke - three guys are talking about their funerals, and what they hope people will say. The first guy says "I hope they say 'He was a captain of industry, bringing innovation to his field'." The second guy says "I hope they say 'He was a devoted family man, who gave his time to the community as well'." The third guy says "I hope they say 'Hey, wait! He isn't dead!' "