Bucket List

Too many serious subjects lately, time for some random non-medical musings!

So, I've been slowly working on my bucket list for the last few years. Not crossing things off my bucket list - I like to think I'm still young enough that I've got plenty of time for that - but what should be on that list in the first place. Anyway, here's what I've got so far!

(Disclaimer - I make no claim of originality in my bucket list)

1) Speak another language (or languages)
Like so many Ontarians, I took French in public school. I even took French Immersion, though I started in Grade 7 and finished up by Grade 11, so it was only 5 years of real exposure. And by "exposure", I mean less than half my classes were in French (sort of), so I never even approached fluency. At best, I could handle slow, conversational French.

These days my French reading comprehension is reasonable, but I have a lot of trouble listening to French and my ability to write or speak it is virtually non-existent.

I've always regretted not keeping up or improving my French - I am oddly jealous of people who can easily speak a second language. There's a mild practical side to this desire to speak French - there are a few career paths I've considered that would be opened up if I could speak French. None of them are likely at this point, but who knows?

If I ever nail down my French, I'd love to move onto some other languages as well. Haven't settled on which language - Cantonese, Spanish or Punjabi would probably be the most practical in Canada, though it depends a lot on location. Around where I live, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic probably have as much or more relevance than Cantonese. I'm leaning towards German - it's close enough to English that it shouldn't be crazy-hard to learn, has some international appeal (though many Germans speak English pretty well), and there is a large German-speaking population around where I'd like to end up practicing (but it's a unique dialect and they also tend to speak English pretty well). For shits and giggles I've also considered completely impractical languages like Finnish, a language with minimal similarity to other world languages confined almost entirely to a country where the majority of citizens speak English anyway.

2) Write a book
I like writing. I do a lot of work (well, unpaid work mostly) that involves writing in some format. I write a lot outside of work too. That's kind of what this blog is for - I write compulsively even without much purpose! At some point, I want to channel that desire to write in a longer, formalized product. Whether that's fiction or non-fiction doesn't really matter to me at this point (ideally I'd do both). Like this blog, I don't particularly care if anyone reads whatever book I write, so long as I can get it printed, bound and put on a bookshelf somewhere.

Non-fiction I think I could do without much difficulty. Every once in a while I pick up a non-fiction book by an obscure author presenting an interesting thesis. They're a bit hit-and-miss in terms of quality reading, but I can completely see myself doing something similar on any number of subjects. It'd take a lot of time, energy, and focus (none of which I have right now), yet beyond those issues, I don't see any major barriers to making a non-fiction book that I'd be happy with, even if it isn't a masterpiece of any sort. Could be a fun retirement project in 40 years.

Fiction would be trickier. I bounce around ideas for a fiction book pretty regularly, but general concepts are easy. Whenever I try to go a bit deeper and set some details on characters or plot, I hit a brick wall pretty fast. I'd set myself pretty high standards for a fiction piece, so that's part of the hang-up. I'm also not the most creative person in the world - ingenuity I think I have in spades, but tasks that require true creativity are a challenge for me. This could be more of a stretch-goal.

3) Learn to fly a plane
My one grandfather was never overly talkative before passing aay, so learning about his life was a bit tricky. But I do know that his time spent flying was a highlight of his life. He flew in WW2, though thankfully never went overseas. Instead, he flew bombers in Canada so the people actually doing the bombing could practice. I'd love to get a sense of what he experienced and why he loved it so much.

4) Learn to shoot a gun
This one I have trouble explaining. I've never laid my hands on a functioning gun. I don't see the point of gun ownership for any reason besides hunting. And I don't really want to hunt either. But, a few of my relatives shoot recreationally or hunt, including my other grandfather, so I'd like to at least learn the skill. Sort of a heritage thing I guess. Plus, I figure there are worse abilities to have if the whole world goes to hell (zombie apocalypse, anyone?)

5) Get to all 10 Canadian Provinces and all 3 Canadian Territories
Super-unoriginal here, but it's what I want to do, so it's on the list. When I was growing up, my family never did long trips to the common vacation spots, favouring camping and travel within Canada. I have so many good memories of visiting Canada and seeing what our country has to offer (or at least of playing Gameboy in the car while my parents saw what our country has to offer). So far, I'm 6/10 on the provinces and 0/3 on the territories. I'd like to fix that if possible!