# The one thing I want to do before I die ...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 9, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621 "2006-03-09T00:29:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/21 "2006-03-09T16:15:37Z")
See the Taj Mahal.
---
### Author:  [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/22 "2006-03-09T16:23:29Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#):
>
> “Build a house.”
Heh. Yeah.
---
### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/23 "2006-03-09T16:48:01Z")
Own a racehorse.
---
### Author:  [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/24 "2006-03-09T17:06:11Z")
I’d like to visit all 50 states. I’ve been to 37 of them, so I am on my way.
---
### Author:  [@rekkah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rekkah)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/25 "2006-03-09T17:08:37Z")
Scuba dive on a coral reef.
---
### Author:  [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/26 "2006-03-09T17:17:03Z")
Go to Pompeii. There are many places I’d like to travel to but for some reason, if I had to choose just one, that would be it. Maybe I want to see if I recognize the old “hood.” 😉
---
### Author:  [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/27 "2006-03-09T17:21:47Z")
Experience a carrier take off and landing in a navy fighter.
I know -there’s so much natural beauty and places to see, but those are things I have a chance to do. This is such a “never gonna happen” dream, that it’s the one I always say.
---
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/28 "2006-03-09T17:22:22Z")
Are we supposed to say if we’ve done what others want to do.
Aslo on my list is “Make a Movie.”
---
### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/29 "2006-03-09T17:23:30Z")
Nah, I’m good.
---
### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/30 "2006-03-09T17:53:46Z")
I wanna become fluent in Japanese and be able to read a Japanese novel without looking up every other word. I’m working on it but it’s slow going on my own here in Texas. So I can either spend 30 more years gaining slow fluency or move to Japan.
---
### Author:  [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/31 "2006-03-09T17:56:28Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#):
>
> I wanna become fluent in Japanese and be able to read a Japanese novel without looking up every other word. I’m working on it but it’s slow going on my own here in Texas. So I can either spend 30 more years gaining slow fluency or move to Japan.
Thats one of my goals too! And hopefully I’ll be in Japan by next year or so.
Also I want to run a full marathon, and climb a mountain.
---
### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/32 "2006-03-09T17:58:36Z")
> [@Quasimodal](#):
>
> Thats one of my goals too! And hopefully I’ll be in Japan by next year or so.
How are you going to get there? I’m gonna apply for JET this year. If I make it, I’m gonna quit my really good well-paying professional job and go for it. I’ve been on the fence for a while but, dang it, I’m only gonna get older…
---
### Author:  [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/33 "2006-03-09T19:49:09Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#):
>
> How are you going to get there? I’m gonna apply for JET this year. If I make it, I’m gonna quit my really good well-paying professional job and go for it. I’ve been on the fence for a while but, dang it, I’m only gonna get older…
Yep, I’m trying for Jet too. Just got an education degreee so I’m hoping it’ll work in my favor. If not, maybe I’ll just fly down and hope for the best.
See you on Mount Fuji!
---
### Author:  [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/34 "2006-03-09T19:54:12Z")
Have sex.
---
### Author:  [@MessyPaint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MessyPaint)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/35 "2006-03-09T20:17:25Z")
Explore the oceans. Discover a musical talent. Live forever, then take on the universe and bring everyone along.
I think the last one will probably happen first.
Oh, and I would of loved to meet Elliott Smith and Brandon Boyd.
---
### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/36 "2006-03-09T22:21:53Z")
OK, I’m from Fairbanks Alaska.
My advice for aurora viewing. A week isn’t enough time to budget. If you were in Fairbanks for a month you’d have (estimate) a 95% chance of catching a really good aurora. But a week? You might see a show, but more likely you wouldn’t.
Also, obviously, you’ve got to go in winter. Yes, the aurora happens in the summer. Except you can’t see the aurora in the daytime, and in the summer they sky never gets dark enough to see the aurora. Yes, Fairbanks is below the arctic circle, the sun goes below the horizon in midsummer, but it never gets dark.
So you’ve gotta go in winter. And you’ve got to pay attention. Thing is, in wintertime most people are indoors. Because it’s cold out. So there could be an amazing aurora display, except you’re inside watching reruns of Three’s Company on cable. And there’s no way to predict when an aurora will happen, we know that increased solar activity make auroras more likely and more intense, but we can’t predict that at 8:45 on Tuesday we’ll have an amazing aurora display over Tok.
So you’ve also gotta be ready to get out of bed in the middle of the night. And somehow arrange to have a support network of people who’ll call you in the middle of the night if they see an aurora.
Bottom line, spend a winter in Fairbanks and you’ll see plenty. Spend a week and you’ve got a good chance of not seeing any.
---
### Author:  [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/37 "2006-03-09T22:34:10Z")
With my health problems, mortality is much closer than I thought it would be at this point in my life.
But I can’t honestly say there’s anything I have to do before it comes. I just don’t care enough any more.
---
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/38 "2006-03-10T01:29:00Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Nah, I’m good.
Yeah, me too. I _have_ to outlive my pore old mother and “see her out” comfortably. And it would be only polite to outlive her and my cats (just one each, both elderly!), too.
But other than those obligations? Nah, I’m good to go. I’ve “looked at life from both sides now,” catted around, was a party girl and a published author and a world traveler and had two Great Romances and some great sex (though never with the Romance guys), got an Alumna of the Year award from my college and attended a penthouse party on Park Avenue, New Year’s Eve 1989. I get _fan letters_. From all around the world.
So just, saying, as long as I outlive poor Mom (who could die tonight, or live another five years), I’d be just as happy to be felled like an ox while standing by the piano with friends singing “ **K-K-K-Katie**.”
---
### Author:  [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/39 "2006-03-10T01:53:44Z")
Change my name to Wayne
---
### Author:  [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621/40 "2006-03-10T01:59:07Z")
Spend a month or so wandering all over Italy, most especially where my grandparents were born.
Barring that, I’ll settle for having sex with Andy Garcia.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/347621.md?page=1)