So back in the golden age of blogging–about 2003-2004, I’d say–there was a challenge going around the Internet called the “101 in 1001”, which is a challenge to complete a list of 101 accomplishments in the span of 1001 days, which amounts to about 2.75 years. It’s a variation on what’s come to be known as a “Bucket list”, but this has no expectations of anyone dropping dead having completed the tasks. The 1001 days would be simply done and you could decide what you wanted to do with it. According to the “Day Zero Project,” they came up with it, and I’ll take their word for it, although I first spotted it on a random blog that I was following back then.
I did write one of these out 20 years ago and dove back into my digital and paper archives of things for that list, but didn’t find the final version despite the fact that I’ve saved almost everything since I was in high school. More than likely, it was on my livejournal back in the early 2000s before I jettisoned that particular platform and then deleted it. Even the Wayback Machine can’t find anything for me. But I did have a draft of it in an old notebook from March of 2004 where I wrote out 37 items to complete before I turn 30 or something like that. I’m pretty sure the 37 was a Kevin Smith reference, and some of the items on the list were pretty impossible to accomplish because they were either ridiculous or a serious reach. Going through that list, I only accomplished nine of the 37 items. They were:
- Get through all the Star Wars movies in one sitting (at the time there were only six)
- Run a 5K
- Have one of my websites make someone’s links list/page
- Ride a looping roller coaster
- Listen to AM radio at around 4:00 a.m. and journal the experience
- Get from Stafford, Virginia to Sayville, New York in under 4:45
- Drink Coke II
- Beat Super Mario Bros.
The rest of the list was like this–a mix of random, silly things like this that were easily accomplished but mixed in with really stued stuff like “become a panelist on one of those VH-1 shows like I Love the ’80s.” I’m also sure that I abandoned the list well before 1001 days. And while 9/37 is a .242 average, at least I was hitting above the Mendoza line. I do wish I could remember the rest of the list and how much I did. I’m sure my batting average would have been much, much lower.
So, I just turned 47, which means I’m going to be 50 in 2027 and since it’s been about 20 years since my original encounter with the 101 in 1001, I decided to make another list. I decided to make it more approachable than 101 items (honestly? I couldn’t think of 101 things. I stopped here). Some of these are taken directly from that “37 ” draft from 2004 but most of them are brand new.
50 Things to Do Before I’m 50
- Complete a watch and read-through of all the Star Wars movies and shows starting with The Phantom Menace and ending with The Rise of Skywalker, reading novelizations and EU novels (both old and new) along the way
- Visit Newfoundland
- Attend a Rangers game at Madison Square Garden
- Trace my family tree on my Italian side further back than my great-grandparents
- Publish a short story
- Write a novel and submit it to an agent or publisher
- Have lunch or dinner at Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah National Park
- Finish a full season on Bases Loaded
- Drive and hike part of a National Forest
- Pay off all my debt
- See a film at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia
- Attend a Mets game at Citi Field
- Go to a stargazing event
- Visit at least one museum in Washington, D.C. that I have never been to
- Shop at the Green Valley Book Fair
- Shop at one of the many thrift stores around here in the Charlottesville area and buy something other than a piece of media
- Read a Tolstoy novel
- Hike in a part with an observation tower and climb the observation tower
- Go to a comic convention for more than one day
- Lose twenty pounds
- Be able to swim five full laps in a pool
- Visit a Hall of Fame
- Read Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Saga
- Re-acquaint myself with the piano and play more consistently
- Watch the sun set from the Appalachian Mountains
- Make some really complicated “bake” from a GBBO-adjacent cookbook
- Have at least one essay published
- Be on a discussion panel
- Try salmon
- “Complete” a park by hiking every one of its trails
- Have a big donut at the Simpsons land at Universal Studios Orlando
- Audition for Jeopardy!
- Have my teeth fixed (or at least look into it/start it)
- Attend an academic conference
- Finally finish painting all the rooms in my house
- Develop and propose (maybe even *crosses fingers* teach) an elective course
- Visit the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center again
- Blog a road trip
- Write about everything that’s on the Pop Cultre Affidavit “Master” topics list
- Solve a mystery
- Attend a writing workshop
- Take pictures on Kodachrome film
- Buy a new laptop
- Play at least one game of every edition of Trivial Pursuit that I own
- Have a Shamrock Shake
- Get the autograph of someone who was on television or in a movie
- Re-learn photography and shoot a quality roll using an SLR camera
- Cook an Italian recipe from Lidia’s cookbook that I’ve never tried before
- Write something about being a teacher and have it published somewhere
- Take a train ride
I think this is still too long of a list, to be honest.
This endeavor, as I look at those who have blogged about it, seems very performative in that slick wannabe influencer sort of way as opposed to something that you do for yoruself. And what’s telling about my list is how many of these items are practical and not as “fun” as someone who would put this together in order to be demonstrative. I can’t tell if that’s my age showing or if I am once again getting into that constant habit of not allowing myself to have fun until my homework is done. Plus, here I am “announcing” something which if you go all the way back to the earliest posts on this blog and is something I hate doing because I hate explaining myself when it doesn’t work out. Over the years, I have comet to realize this was something instilled in me by my parents’ (especially my father’s) tendency to point out how and where people we know or see have fallen short. The result has been either a toxic sense of commitment (I never dropped a class ever and tended to stick around things for much longer than necessary out of “loyalty”) or inertia (why start or move forward when you know it will fall short or all you’ll hear/remember is criticism). Yeah, welcome to my anxiety and depression. It’s a joy to be here.
Anyway, something I liked about compiling this list is that not only was I getting to write down things that were still undone and neede to be finished, I get to think of things I have always wanted to do as well as come up with a few new ones and go back to redo things I did when I was younger.
the only thing that seems to be really bothering me these days about getting older is the physical toll of aging and how much more I have to pay to my health as opposed to my twenties when I barely went to the doctor and never went to the dentsit. And hey, maybe I’m saying this because I had a colonoscopy last week. Otherwise, I see the road ahead–intellectually, maybe even creatively–as long and wide.
Want to follow along with me over on Day Zero? Check me out here!
The Uncollecting 