# top 10 things to do before you die
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 23, 2002, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348 "2002-07-23T06:51:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mhill007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhill007)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/1 "2002-07-23T06:51:16Z")
What are the top 10 things you want to do before you die, I’m still working on my list and am trying to steal a few good ideas…I have a few which will probably end up being my top 50…Skydive solo, eat left handed for a year(I’m right-handed), become published, go to Ireland, read the whole Bible, learn to make sushi, be on TV, have something named after me and stay a few days in a monastary…to name a few…
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### Author:  [@sirtonyh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sirtonyh)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/2 "2002-07-23T07:40:22Z")
Have my hair in dreadlocks
Go to the Rio carnival
Swim with dolphins
Learn to speak Spanish
Learn to water ski
Put $1M on Red 17 in Las Vegas
Can’t think of anymore. Most of the things I’ve wanted to see or do I’ve seen or done.
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/3 "2002-07-23T10:37:29Z")
[ul][_]Sky dive[_]Learn Spanish[_]Get married. Have kids?[_]Own a Ferrari 512 BB[_]Do 300 km/h on a motorcycle[_]Travel around Europe (and maybe beyond?) on a motorcycle[_]Learn Italian[_]Travel to: Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Canada, all South American countries, a whole lot of African countries[\*]Drive a Land Rover across the Serengetti[/ul]Oh, and “earn 10 million bucks to finance all this”. 🙂
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### Author:  [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/4 "2002-07-23T10:46:34Z")
What is it with wanting to learn Spanish? 😃 That’s certainly on my list, too (real Spanish, too. Not my dirty-kitchen Spanish that I wouldn’t dare speak in front of my future in-laws).
Adopt a kid or two.
Learn how to drive stick shift.
Get a degree in Cultural Anthropology.
Live in New Orleans for a while.
Bike trip through France’s wine country
Go to Easter Island
Travel throughout South America
Be a teacher of food history for a while.
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### Author:  [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/5 "2002-07-23T12:31:29Z")
Ride on Concorde
Go up in a hot air balloon
Go into space
See the aurora borealis
See a total eclipse of the sun
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### Author:  [@Jdeforrest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jdeforrest)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/6 "2002-07-23T12:32:10Z")
Write a book
Get published in a scientific journal
Invent something
Lecture at Harvard
Sail around the world
Get a doctorate
That’s all I have lined up so far
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### Author:  [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/7 "2002-07-23T12:47:51Z")
I speak Spanish. So there.
[ul]
[li]Get done with a novell, finally, get published and end up at the top of the US Best Seller List[/li][li]Buy a house in a warmer climate and spend winters there[/li][li]Get married. Have kids.[/li][li]Buying all the furniture that I admire and can’t afford[/li][li]Getting rid of my arthritis (as if!) and finally losing some wight.[/li][li]There are a number of women I’d like to share my bed with. They’d make a list of their own.[/li][li]Owning a small combined hotell/restaurant in the south of France and NOT having to make any money out of it.[/li][li]Having a big sailing boat and leasurly cruising the Caribbean[/li][li]Visit Buenos Aires, New Orleans, New York.[/li][li]Selling a screenplay to a Hollywood studio and having ‘final cut’ option.[/li][/ul]
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### Author:  [@Broodha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broodha)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/8 "2002-07-23T13:23:18Z")
- Learn another language
- Dance like a hippy
- Run a B&B along a hiking trail in the Alps
- Make love to someone you are in love with
- Write a poem
- See a panhandler, open your wallet and give him the entire contents, no questions asked
- Make a sculpture out of clay
- Build something with your own hands
- Walk barefoot on a beach at night
- Write a long letter to a friend you haven’t spoken to in years
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/9 "2002-07-23T13:36:11Z")
• Outlive my Mom (because one _should_, out of politeness)
• Go to Paris with my best friend
. . . Umm, that’s about it, actually. I already did—or _tried_ to do—all the other things I’ve wanted to.
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### Author:  [@jacksen9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacksen9)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/10 "2002-07-23T14:22:25Z")
1. Get out of this subdivision and city.
2. Buy a small piece of property in Copiah County Mississippi with a little shotgun house, front porch, rocking chair, and porch swing.
3. Open a little coffee shop on Backstreet that is not run for the purpose of profit. Sell newspapers, magazines, etc. Offer good conversation and excellent service.
4. Buy a '75 Chevy Truck and restore it to mint condition.
5. Own a minor league baseball park.
6. Own vacation homes in Gulf Shores Ala, Key West, Savannah Ga.
7. Get a Liberal Arts Degree.
8. Donate millions to various charities.
9. Spend a day with John Wooden.
10. Have a vegetable garden.
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### Author:  [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/11 "2002-07-23T19:00:27Z")
1. Go Hot-Air balooning
2. Go skydiving
3. Go to Japan
4. Have the ultimate sex party
5. Get into low Earth orbit
6. Buy an island
7. Take a tour of the Middle East and sneak my way into Mecca
8. Get a degree in English
9. Own a vineyard for fun, not for profit
10. Have at least one true paranormal encounter
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/12 "2002-07-23T19:21:35Z")
1. Go to Thailand and Ankgor Wat (maybe this year, I hope!)
2. Go to Jerusalem and Petra
3. Go to Croatia
4. Finish my doctorate
5. Find a decent teaching job overseas (pretty flexible about where, but somewhere in Europe would be ideal)
6. Have kids. (Preferably ones with a father, but I am beginning to despair of this.)
7. Go on a serious hiking trip, maybe on the Appalachian trail or something
8. Learn to speak another language really well, preferably the one spoken wherever I manage to get a job
9. Get to be a very, very good teacher, the sort students remember when they’re older
10. Learn how to make pierogi
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/13 "2002-07-23T19:31:18Z")
Learn to do something, anything, really well.
Raise or be a positive influence in the life of a child.
Take some time off to travel and grow (as a person, not agribusiness).
Go someplace spiritual, like Macchu Pichu, Stonehenge, etc.
Complete a difficult physical feat, like a triathalon, marathon, etc.
Get an advanced degree or be published.
Volunteer in a manner more than casual.
Skydive, scuba, bungee, something to poop your pants.
Love somebody.
Leave the world a better or cleaner place than when you arrived.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/14 "2002-07-23T19:39:22Z")
1. Step onto all 7 continents.
2. Publish a book.
3. Go into space.
4. Meet my grandchildren.
5. Own a ‘getaway’ place where renters pay a lot of the mortgage.
6. Go on a long bike trip.
7. Do something that makes a permanent change for the better for society.
8. Stick around until they have a good idea of how many ‘Earth-like planets’ there are in the galaxy, and have better numbers for the equations that predict how much life, sentient life, and highly communicative life is out there.
9. Fly in a vintage WWI fighter or light bomber.
10. Sell a script.
This list is not sorted.
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### Author:  [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/15 "2002-07-23T19:46:18Z")
\*find a Clovis point in the Sierras
\*own a used bookstore called “Browsers Welcome”
\*pet a sea otter
\*own a 1969 Land Rover 88 and a 1965 tri-power GTO
\*surf a long rolling head-high wave at sunset at a deserted point break
\*spend one season attending every game of the Oakland A’s (Although I reserve the right to rescind this wish if there is a strike this year. It has taken me since 1994 to actually enjoy the game again and here they go:(.)
\*find a first edition copy of The Hobbit and/or Lord of the Rings at a yard sale
\*hike the full length of the Pacific Crest trail
\*celebrate 50 years with Mrs. Gaffer
\*see my boys become men I respect
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### Author:  [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/16 "2002-07-23T20:06:28Z")
1. Write a novel . . . heck, write several novels.
2. Stop working in dead-end boring office jobs
3. Own a condo, instead of trying to find a new apartment every year.
4. Go back to school.
5. Teach English in Canada.
6. Learn Japanese
7. Have kids. (or maybe just kid, I’m not ambitious)
8. Have more cats. (adopt, I mean)
9. Have a room in my dwelling that can be referred to as a library. :drool:
10. Be happy.
11. You mean I have to stop at ten? darn. 😃
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### Author:  [@Grim\_Beaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Beaker)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/17 "2002-07-23T20:28:57Z")
My top 10 list of things I’d like to accomplish (in random order) includes:
1. Run a marathon / become fit
2. Learn another language (Japanese and/or Spanish preferred)
3. Write a book
4. Become financially independent
5. Master at least one musical instrument
6. Make a difference
Still trying to figure out what the last 4 items are 🙂
Grim
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### Author:  [@DairyMary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DairyMary)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/18 "2002-07-23T20:52:33Z")
My list is getting shorter as I keep doing things on it.
1. Go hang gliding (did that and wrecked while practicing taking off and landing at about 10 feet off the ground. It was fun though a bit painful with all the bruises.)
2. Change my carreer to something artistic permanently. (Like earning money dancing, playing music, painting, etc… not managing the artists…how boring) (I used to teach but that isn’t exactly the same)
3. Write my life story (It is basically finished at around page 300. I keep adding to the center part of the story since I stopped writing anything that happened after I turned 25)
4. Have a carreer where royalties will free up my time so I could roam around the world.
5. Buy a seaworthy sailboat and get a few friends and travel the world by it. (Really would love to do that.)
6. Finish learning a few foreign languages.
7. Get an advanced degree
8. Study under a french pastry chef
9. Fall in love with that one special person (or more if the circumstances turn out right. A triple would be nice sometimes.)
10. Find the few teachers throughout elementary to high school who belittled me and made me feel bad about myself and rationally tell them off without getting hotheaded.
Dairy Mary
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### Author:  [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/19 "2002-07-23T21:01:02Z")
[list=1]
[li]Sing in a cabaret style performance for a paying audience.[/li][li]Write a novel that I let someone read. (Even Mr. tlw hasn’t read any of my stories.)[/li][li]Dance with Mr. tlw atop the Eiffel Tower[/li][li]Visit Alaska[/li][li]Go back for my doctorate [/li][li]Get my private pilot’s license and own a plane of my own[/li][li]Learn to play chess[/li][li]See the sunrise on one continent and the sunset on another on the same day[/li][li]Make a souffle that doesn’t fall :o[/li][li]Run another NYC Marathon - maybe after I’m 50 :D[/li][/list=1]
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### Author:  [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2002, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-10-things-to-do-before-you-die/120348/20 "2002-07-24T00:43:01Z")
1. Write a novel
2. PhD
3. Travel in space (preferably interplanetary)
4. Nobel prize (hey, I can dream. :))
5. Become fluent in a second language.
6. Learn to relax better in social situations.
7. I seem to be running out of things to do.
8. Don’t. (Die that is)
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