Bucket List

Life is filled with day to day, the mundane challenges that consume us.  While we move through these day to day hurdles the mind has a funny way of adding new challenges to our psyche.

I like to think these challenges created in our minds are part of our bucket lists... the things we aspire to before we move on to our next life.   Bucket lists are funny things, they are often very personal, private, sometimes far fetched, sometimes simple... always individual.

My bucket list is extremely diverse, I want to attend the Winter Olympics, I want to sing a song on a Broadway stage, I want to visit Australia and scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef.  I want to hike the Grand Canyon, walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards and publish a novel.... like I said, diverse. These are just a few of the items on my "list."

I admire people who check off things on their list, my niece Chelsea has really done an amazing job of checking off items on her list.  Some things are easier than others to check off, some just take the nerve to make it happen, sometimes you just need a good kick in the pants to say... go for it... that is the stage in my life that I find myself.

As a middle aged, overweight, bald man it is easy to sit back and let life pass you by.  Work is great, I love my house, have amazing friends and family, enjoy my position as Vice-Mayor and find myself watching life pass me by.  It is time for a quick kick in the butt.... this Friday that kick will happen.

Over the winter, Zack, Chelsea, Sam and I were having a conversation and realized that sky-diving is on all our bucket lists.  Sky-diving... 47 years old, overweight, bald.... life passing me by... yep, that sounds like the perfect kick in the butt that I need.

During our initial conversation back in the winter we decided to jump together, a family outing.  Reservations have been made and good Lord willing, this Friday, July 22nd, I will step out of a plane with a perfect stranger strapped to my back and float through the heavens and safely down to earth. 

Skydiving... ok, sure I could have made reservations to go to the US Figure Skating Championships, yes, that is on the list.  I could have taken scuba lessons, yes, that is on the list.  I could have spent an entire weekend riding roller coasters, yes that's on the list too.... HOWEVER, would any of those things been the kick in the butt that this middle aged, bald, overweight guy needs to get out and stop letting life pass me by... I don't think so.

It's time and I hope this leap of faith will help change my psyche.

As I have told my friends about the jump, many have looked at me in disbelief.  Some have questioned my mental capacity to manage my own life moving forward, others have just looked at me like I am crazy and some have even come right out and called me crazy.  I have heard story after story of how my friend's neighbors, uncle's, wife was sucked up into a cloud and never seen again after she jumped. 

I admit it, sky-diving may not be the smartest thing in the world to be doing.  But is letting life pass me by any better?   I don't think so, I think it is time for a good kick in the butt, it's time to live a little and cross off a MAJOR item on the bucket list.