<li>Attend a 3-month silent meditation retreat</li>
<li>Have the lead in a community theater play</li>
<li>Learn to dance well</li>
<li>Learn to draw or paint well</li>
<li>Learn to sing well enough to get a chorus part in a local musical</li>
</ol>
<p>The advice that I’d pass on is: If you really want to learn a skill, then invest in lessons in it and work hard to learn that skill. Never assume that you lack the talent to reach at least average level. Don’t let fear of looking like a fool keep you from trying to reach your dreams for yourself. </p>
<p>Took me more than 50 years to learn that people who could do things that I dreamed of doing, but figured I couldn’t do, didn’t just rely on their natural talent. They took lessons – even if they didn’t admit that they took lessons.</p>
<p>This thread was inspired by the death of Randy Pausch (the 47-year-old former Carnegie Mellon professor whose last lecture – after learning he had terminal cancer – became an Internet sensation) and the death of one of my best friends, who despite a very successful career as a psychoanalyst regretted on her deathbed not following an artistic career.</p>
<p>Both people’s lives reminded me of the importance of using our short time on earth to follow our dreams. We don’t have forever. We can’t count on putting things off until we retire either because we may not live that long and even if we do, we may not have the health to do some of the things we had long dreamed of doing.</p>
<p>I’m doing the things now that I was too shy and timid to do as a teen. These include taking dancing lessons and becoming active --as a writer and actor – in community theater.</p>
<ol>
<li> Provide a decent living for my wife, even when I’m gone.</li>
<li> Be the best husband I can be while I’m here and love her like there’s no tomorrow.</li>
<li> Ensure my children are good citizens and have the tools to be good parents.</li>
<li> Be a good neighbor.</li>
<li> Have as much fun as possible. :D</li>
</ol>
<p>I didn’t realize Randy Pausch had died. I am so sad to hear of that. Which brings me to the most important thing I would like to do: Stay alive long enough to see my grandkids (hoping I end up with some) grow up. Of course, I want to have my H by my side the whole time, and I want to be healthy enough to travel with him. Which, or course, reminds me that I would like to make enough money to be able to retire comfortably & to be able to travel.</p>
<p>My sympathies on the passing of your friend, NSM. </p>
<p>I think that I can honestly say that I don’t have any regrets. Maybe I had too few goals. </p>
<p>Advice? Marry for love, and make sure he/she is your FRIEND. Don’t expect anything … instead, be grateful for what you are given. Remember that the more you have … the more others have in comparison. Pitch in when it looks like your help would be a blessing … don’t wait to be asked.</p>
<p>Before I die, I want to fall in love
and I want to write letters to everyone I know telling them what it is I love about them
I want to learn ballet
I want to sing a song accompanied by a guy playing acoustic guitar
and I want to see Ireland</p>
<p>And I would pass on the optimism I am so famous for- everything happens for a reason. No matter how bad things seem, they will get better</p>
<p>I want to spend a month in the summer on a northern lake with my family and canoe every day and build fires every night and have no tv and no clocks.</p>
<p>Sticking with just ten items (I could probably come up with ten times as many, easily), I want to:
[ul][<em>]see an aurora (borealis or australis, or even both!)
[</em>]travel to continents I have not yet been to
[<em>]sit in my new backyard swing when the weather is pleasant without being eaten by mosquitoes
[</em>]take my son to see the Grand Canyon
[<em>]use a telescope at Kitt Peak ([Advanced</a> Observing Program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center](<a href=“http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/]Advanced”>http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/))
[</em>]perform again
[<em>]learn how to marble paper
[</em>]get the APOD books (for myself this time!) and have them signed by the two scientists responsible for APOD
[<em>]redo the basement (admittedly, more of a need to do than want to do)
[</em>]be forgiven for my parenting mistakes
[/ul]</p>
<p>Advice to pass on:
[ul]
[<em>]Dance! No one else cares what you look like dancing, so get out there and dance!
[</em>]Be brave; try things.
[<em>]Right the wrongs you can.
[</em>]Be kind.
[*]Listen and look.[/ul]</p>
<p>A few years back, the 40 something, mother ot 2 wife of one my law partners was killed in a car accident. One thing I found out about her at her funeral is that she had gone to “clown college” and went to chidren’s hospitals as a clown to entertain sick kids. I personally dislike clowns, but I was so glad for her that she did that when she did, rather than waiting to do it when her kids were grown.</p>
<p>I share missypie’s sentiments about not waiting until retirement.
My grandparents waited to travel until my grandfather retired. They had one short trip and then my grandfather got alzheimers, so they couldn’t travel.</p>
<p>My mom always dreamed about going to Paris and Spain, but kept putting it off. Then, my father had a stroke, and my mom said she couldn’t go because she had to take care of him. After he died, she found travel to be such a hassle that even though she had the money to go abroad, she didn’t.</p>
<p>A friend thought her husband was being extravagant for insisting that they travel each year. Then, he dropped dead of a heart attack before his 50th birthday, and she was glad that they had had those trips together.</p>
<p>I know parents who said they’d get their own college degrees after their kids got theirs, but after their kids graduated, the parents felt they were too old to go back to college.</p>
<p>And then there are all of the people who hate where they work or the area where they live, but keep putting off making a change. Then, after they get to a certain age, they find it’s hard to find a new line of work, and it’s hard to move away from friends they’ve had for decades.</p>
<p>Many people keep putting off things that they would love to do. After a while, they are too scared to do those things or feel that they are too old to try something new. It’s very hard to try something new when one hasn’t done anything new for decades.</p>
<p>It’s really sad to see people who are reasonably healthy senior citizens who feel that there’s nothing left but to wait for death.</p>
<p>Having recently retired and in the process of moving to our “retirement” home, my wife and I have given considerable thought of how we craft meaningful lives in a new environment.</p>
<p>While we have not arrived at any specifics we have reached a general conclusion to seize each day with vigor and ensure that each day has meaningful physical, social, sprirtual and intellectual components. Our new life together, unburdened by the responsibilities associated with employment, will allow us to simplify our daily life and pursue happiness in a more Aristotlean sense.</p>
<p>See the aurora borealis.
(Interesting coincidence with owlice’s list! This has been the only item on my list that I’d really like to do, and I had it in mind when I saw the thread title, before I read her post.)</p>
<p>I did one of those things I wanted to do before I pass on this spring : </p>
<p>visited Angkor Wat. </p>
<p>The rest :</p>
<ol>
<li>walk on the Golden Gate Bridge</li>
<li>see the giant trees of Cali</li>
<li>Visit one of those gravity defying places I read about.</li>
<li>Visit northern Europe</li>
<li>Live in Paris and Florence for a few months. </li>
</ol>
<p>My advice to my children : always try your best at what you do.</p>
<p>QuantMech and Northstarmom, you know about spaceweather.com, yes? I’m hoping that some day, I have the spare cash and time to go where I need to go when spaceweather.com gives a good aurora forecast!</p>
</p>