The New Bucket List

I loved the movie! Who doesn't love Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman? At the end of your life you want your memories to be filled with great loves, crazy times and amazing adventures. A long life is guaranteed to nobody, and too many people I knew did not live long enough to put a dent in their bucket lists. Whether it is long term goals, or simply a wish list, waiting for 'someday' is a gamble, and most often is not by choice. Life gets in the way. But sometimes your life is hijacked by an unavoidable set of circumstances, and the most dreaded of situations is sprung on you...... the fork in your road is right there in front of you, and you are frog-marched in the opposite direction of your plans, goals, visions, wants, desires, needs, requirements. The surreal fog of your spinning world seems to lack oxygen - just breathing feels unnaturally difficult. Not only is there no light in nor at the end of the tunnel, but your eyes feel blinkered and blindfolded for good measure! The volume of the advice being directed at you is both muffled and shrill at the same time. The dryness in your mouth is competing with the acid boring though your stomach. You are aware that you are isolated in that moment, and it becomes the beginning of the most solitary road of your life. That was September 2015.....
Next week marks three years since my world was pummelled and left for dead. It has been the longest road in the fastest time, leaving carnage in its wake, but awakening unblinkered eyes to a world beyond the first forty years of experience. In my early twenties I made my ultimate Bucket List, filled with possessions and selfishness. I used to joke that marriage should be on a five year lease system (renewable only by mutual agreement based on performance), but your Bucket List should be the same. Every five years there should be a review, and the List should be evaluated for achievement levels, current realistic viability, beneficial capability, social responsibility, financial accountability, level of joy reached, and overall satisfaction. After this assessment, the next five year list should be structured based on the previous list's achievements. The only regrets we have are the chances not taken. I have learnt that everybody fails.... some of us more spectacularly than others, but still a failure. As much as I would love to have never gone through 2015, there is no other way that I would have been forced into the situation that led to me cruising the entire world for two years. I know that I now have to start my life over, and at 45 it is far harder than at 19, but I have two years of incredible global memories and experiences that are usually reserved for Bucket Lists. And most of the time they remain uncrossed on other's Bucket Lists.
So, if my List had said 'go in a submarine' - ticked off in Barbados, 'drive under the sea' - ticked off in Japan, 'look at a glacier' - ticked off in Norway, Chile and Alaska, '1950's car ride' - ticked off in Cuba, 'step back in time' - ticked off in Pompeii, or 'go to the end of the world' - ticked off in Ushuaia's Lighthouse at the end of the world, then I would be pretty pleased with my tick list. Crossing the equator, crossing the international date line, cable cars, long haul flights, Panama Canal, sunshine at midnight, famous people (Stephen Hawking, James Martin) - ticked, ticked, ticked. Unbelievable experiences from around the world, that I am truly grateful for and humble in my acknowledgement of the incredible opportunity afforded to so few. Most people wait a lifetime to experience just one of these, and I did them at an imperfect time in my life, with perfect timing. The first two decades of my adult life ended with the travel adventures of a lifetime, and I am blessed enough to be starting my next chapter back in South Africa with my daughter. The question now is...... What is going to be on my New Bucket List!??