Welcome back to the newsletter! The time has come for me to unveil my bucket list.
One of my goals for 2022 was to build a list of 100 things I want to do before I die. Unlike the habit-setting resolutions I usually write about in this newsletter, these are one-off goals. They will lead to incredible adventures and exciting stories to tell the grandkids.
Before we jump in, a few things about the list. First off, the goals are in no particular order, just the order I thought of them. However, I split them into five categories to make this slightly more readable: Travel, Physical feats, Creative goals, Goals that require some money, and Miscellaneous. The list is already pretty long, so I won’t write about each item, but I will elaborate on some if I need to explain myself or talk about the reasoning behind the goal.
There are some goals that I wrote down last year that I have since completed. (One of those was to run a marathon, woohoo ✅!) So for those, I took them off the list and replaced them with something else.
One last thing before we jump in. I want to extend an invitation to you, the reader. If any of these goals sound like something you’d like to do with me, please reach out or comment below! Not only would that ensure that I’ll go through with checking the items off this list, but it would also be a lot of fun! And, of course, if you have a bucket list of your own, I would love to join you as well!
Without further ado, the bucket list!
Travel
Live for a year in a new country (not France or the US)
I only really know two cities: Paris (where I grew up) and New York (where I went to college and currently live). Tourism is great, but it only gives you a taste of what life is like in other places. I want to be exposed to a new culture (and even, why not, a new language). That’s why I want to live outside my two home countries for a year.
Travel to South America
Travel to Africa
Travel to Oceania
Visit Antarctica
The last four are all the continents I’ve never been to.
See the Taj Mahal
Visiting my friend Alex in India in January 2020 (just weeks before the whole world shut down) was one of the favorite trips of my life. I loved the food and everything we saw and did. I can’t wait to return to India and see a new part of the country I didn’t get to last time.
See Machu Picchu
See the Pyramids of Giza
Road trip across the US with friends
Visit every European country
Go to Vegas for a weekend
I’m not a gambler, but a weekend could be fun, right?
Go to the Carnival of Brazil
Have pizza in Naples
I love pizza. I love Italian food. This allows me to eat pizza in a part of Italy I’ve never been to.
Take a 24+ hour train
I feel like this could be fun.
Do a week-long biking trip
Take a helicopter ride over New York
Have omakase in Tokyo
Ride a camel in the Sahara desert
See the heads on Easter Island
Swim in the hot springs of Iceland
Take a train across the US
Go to Monaco for the F1 Grand Prix
Go on a safari
Do a meditation retreat
Eat a bahn mi in Hanoi
Eat tacos in Mexico City
Go skiing/snowboarding in the US
I’ve snowboarded a handful of times in France but never in the US.
Go scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef
Spend a month in a US national park
Do a food tour of Italy
The pizza in Naples just won’t be enough.
See Kangaroos or Koalas in Australia
Climb Mount Fuji
Travel through Asia for six months
Physical feats
Go skydiving
Kind of a cliché for a bucket list, but I want to do it!
Go bungee jumping
Do a triathlon
Just started training!
Complete an Iron Man
It’s the next logical step after a triathlon, right?
Complete an eating challenge
Going to be pretty hungry after my Iron Man.
Surf a 3-foot wave
I love the idea of surfing but have never really done it. (I took one class with my girlfriend where I got up on the board, but that’s it.) Three feet seems easy enough, but not too easy, so I would need to practice a little. (For the surfers out there, is that reasonable?)
Do ten pull-ups in a row
I used to be able to do like five or six in high school, which was a great way to impress my girlfriend. But I've lost this skill since I haven’t had to impress a new girl in eight years.
Compete in a boxing match
Getting punched in the face seems fun.
Run a 5k in under 25 minutes
My current PR is 28:20.
Run a sub-4-hour marathon
My current PR is 5:23:23.
Run a 10k in under 50 minutes
My current PR is 57:10.
Run the NYC marathon
If everything goes well, I’ll do it this year 🤞
Run the Paris Marathon
Kayak down the Colorado river
Alex Supertramp from “Into the Wild” made this sound very fun.
Kayak down the Seine
Is this allowed? It would be fun to kayak through my hometown.
Bike from Lille to Marseille
Do a kickflip
Same as the surfing goal. I like the idea of skateboarding, and this seems like a fun challenge.
Go cliff jumping
Do an entire training program for a race with a friend
Go kite surfing
Creative goals
Write a book
Sell an artwork
Post my 100th video on YouTube
I’m not done with youtube yet!
Build my personal website to archive all that I create
Should be ready soon!
Send out my 100th newsletter
This is #44.
Create a short film
Start a podcast
Create a public art installation in NYC (guerrilla art)
Create a font
Start a creative brand
Build a piece of furniture out of wood
Make an outfit from scratch
Paint a 25-square-foot painting
Livestream a total of 100 hours
Publish a video game
Nothing too crazy. I just finished the book “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” and that made making video games sound fun.
Goals that require some money
Eat at a 3 Michelin star restaurant
Open a restaurant
Definitely going to be a later-in-life thing, but I would love to do this eventually.
Buy a home
Put $1000 on a color in roulette
Fly first class
Just once could be fun.
Own a lavender field
I have this image of retiring in the South of France and owning a lavender field. It would be very peaceful.
Sponsor a friend’s creative endeavor
Open an art gallery
Open a food truck
Donate to help 100 dogs get adopted
I like dog.
Miscellaneous
Make avocado toast from an avocado I grew from a pit
My avocado tree is growing. I need to wait a few years for the fruits of my labor (literally).
Read 1000 books
Work for a big tech company
Donate blood 30 times
The last time I tried, I wasn’t allowed because I’m European and could have mad cow disease or something. But I think they’ve loosened the requirements since.
Do a week-long tech detox
Get comfortable speaking in a new language
Donate 1% of any money I make
Go to a movie festival
Organize a party for 300+ people
Get coffee with 30 strangers
Go to a 24+ hour party
Go to a nude beach
This would force me out of my comfort zone in a fun way.
Catch a large fish
Go swimming with sharks
Make beer from scratch
Make my own wine
Contribute to an open-source project
Create a small power generator
Coach someone to help them achieve their goals
Work for / create a nonprofit
Become a teacher of some kind
I taught programming to kids at a camp a few summers back. It was exhausting but super rewarding. I would love to teach again.
Become a mentor to someone
That’s the list!
Some of these goals will take years to achieve—others I could do this week.
But if you read my last newsletter, you know that my goal for the year is to check ten items off my bucket list. Better get to it!
And to reiterate, because I’m serious about this, please let me know if you would like to join me on any of the above 100 adventures. I’d love to have you along for the ride.
I’ve officially started training for my triathlon, and my personal website is coming along nicely, so my next newsletter will be about one of those two topics. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!
Thanks so much for reading. See you next time ❤️
love these ❤️
Nice