Throughout the 70’s Mrs. Cretin and I were serious backpackers, doing all of our longer trips in the region of the high Sierra Nevada between Mt. Whitney and Mono Pass.
I’ll always regret never having climbed Mount Sill. 14,150’ elevation. Hiked right past the West face a few times, never had an extra day for the side trip to the summit.
Because of age and poor physical condition (Fat) it’s been 25 years since the expedition would have been remotely possible for me.
Balls.
Making a living with music. I’ve been a musician since I was 7, and in the past few years I’ve started to be a little bit known in the DC jazz community, but I also have a career that I enjoy and that pays well and that often requires more than just 40 hours a week. In the past couple of years I have gradually come to terms with the fact that I simply don’t have the time/energy required to become a working musician while I also have a day job – let alone to try to support myself with music. I’ll continue to be active in the community and get stray gigs here and there (because it’s who I am), but I now see full-time musicianship as a retirement dream; at least 25 years away.
Finding someone to share the rest of my life with. Not in a whiny “no one will ever love me” way, but in a realistic “I’m 43 and fat and picky and I’ve been single most of my life and this might well be it” way. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t given up entirely: hopeless romantics die hard! But it’s not a priority, and for the most part I’m at the “fuckit” stage – which I’m finding comes with a certain degree of peace.
Doing anything remarkable.
First female Major League Baseball player – hell, I’d just be happy if that happened to someone else in my lifetime
Lost my virginity sooner – plenty of opportunities that I was >thisclose< to (doncha know ;)), but too much religious BS hangups in the way (which, in turn, screwed with my head long term for the waiting :()
Visiting other countries – too broke and I doubt that’ll ever change now
Having a child – too mental that I couldn’t take a chance of passing on and too determined not to inflict my psycho mother on anyone else, plus I’m too old now, with no working parts
I think that’s all.
Astronomer; or at least the owner of a small planetarium.
Space traveler. I think every child of the 50s-60s wanted to do that.
Own an honest-to-god muscle car from the 60s, like a Tri-Power GTO or a rebuilt 56 Chevy with a big mill in it. I could still do that, but at my age it would probably just look pathetic. So fuck it. . .I think.
Actress - When I was 19, I went through a very dark time getting treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When I was finally through it, which took about three years, the idea of living on crumbs while waiting for my big break no longer seemed exciting. Sometimes I still think about it, and I may still give it a whilr, but just for fun, not for a living.
Skydiving - despite a fear of heights, this sounded fun, until I had a child. Now it will have to wait until she isn’t so dependant on me. It seems like a silly risk.
Pilot: way back when, made impossible by my sex and economics (the Spanish AF opened up to women when I was in my 30s; private lessons were way out of reach). Eyesight wouldn’t have helped, but damnit, if I’d been a guy at least I would have been able to get one of the support jobs. Planes are about the one thing I like more than chocolate, but I treat them like I treat bakers’ displays - no looking, since I’ll just make myself yearn for something I can’t have.
Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner: kind of got derailed when I discovered the completely stupid things my PhD advisor would sometimes do weren’t stupidity but active sabotage. Fucker now teaches at a CC.
Product Integrity Manager, several others: interviews didn’t pan out, or HR had an extreme attack of The Stupid, or… I’m happy with my current job, but there’s a couple that I really think I would have done very well at and enjoyed.
Production engineer, process engineer, production manager: sexism can go hug a real big cactus. Tightly, please. Well, I’m a Production consultant, but I wanted to be boss, ok?
Bestselling author. (Or at least “author who can support myself with my fiction.”) I used to write a lot when I was younger, but was never brave enough to try to get anything published. I still write a lot (more now, even!) and I’d love to get published, but I’m just not sure I’ve got the patience at this point to send things out, wait through all the inevitable rejections until my stuff clicks with somebody, then wait through the whole publishing process (and even if all of that happened, the odds of selling enough to live on are pretty low). I’ve actually got a novel contracted to write for the company I freelance for and I’m happy as a clam about that. That’ll have to be my “published author” credit, I think.
Travel: I suppose I could still do it, but as I get older I’ve turned into a bit of a homebody. I’d love to see the places, but the logistics of actually planning the trip and getting there become less attractive.
Artist: I used to like to draw when I was a kid, and I had more talent than most of my friends at it, but that says more about my friends being bad artists than me being a good one. Once the Internet became a thing, I realized that compared to “real” artists, I was pretty hopeless. Would have been fun to take lessons younger, but at this point I’ve accepted that my first love is writing, not art.
Drugs I wish I’d experimented a bit when I was a teen/young adult. I particularly would have liked to try LSD, because it sounds intriguing. But I’m such a straight arrow I’ve never even touched an illegal drug, and that’s unlikely to change at this point.
Interesting. I think I have a similar, related experience. Care to share?
Shouldn’t be here, though. It’d need its own MPSIMS thread. If you do share, please point that out and I’ll jump in also.
But, yeah, the fuckers.
skydiving I’d always intended to but never did, and now I doubt I ever will. But who knows, if the right situation came up, I’m still game. Well, maybe, if my wife wouldn’t object. It’s one of those things I shoulda done while still single (like taking a 6-months walkabout – thank goodness I did that when I could!)
Other than that, nothing I can think of other than fantasy land. I guess that 3some with two leggy bisexual supermodels isn’t going to happen. Oh darn.
Oh yeah, playing jazz adequately. But I haven’t completely given up on that, or reading music either. Maybe someday. I should have more time to devote to it after retirement, right?
This thread would be a lot better if it asked “who’s“ instead of what’s.
Africa is awesome, my favorite place to travel. It’s a big continent, and more of it safe than isn’t. I wouldn’t cross this one off the list!
As a junior high student I wanted to be a veterinarian. Then I came to realize it wasn’t all about playing with doggies and kitties, sometimes you had to hurt them, or put them to sleep.
I’d love to have been an astronaut. Even now, if I had a chance to go into space, I’d take it if I had just a 50/50 chance of coming back.
I’ve always heard the fuckit list defined as the bucket list you make when you only have a few months to live. Skydiving, robbing a bank, trying to jump 13 school buses on a vespa scooter, picking a knife fight with a bear; things you’ve avoided because of their negative affect on your lifespan, but fuck it, you’re on your way out anyway, trade in a painful regression for a blaze of glory.
Oh, I’m stealing that. That’s GOLD!
I’m probably not going to be a war journalist. I’d be a pretty crappy journalist to begin with, and I’m not sure my husband would be thrilled about me wandering in to a war zone without serious security.
Boy, you folks placed some high expectations on yourselves, or maybe I’ve placed low expectations upon myself.
Going to Africa. I’ve come to accept that it ain’t happening.
Mule trip down the Grang Canyon. My health is just too poor.
Getting married. 'Nuff said.
Hiking the Appalachian Trail solo. (Or at all, for that matter!) I don’t know why this has such appeal to me. I’ve been backpacking exactly once, when I was in high school. But every time I read a book about hiking the Appalachian Trail I want to do itl My feet are way too screwed up, though. Gettin’ old sucks.
You could try selling LSD to regretful middleage Dopers. That seems to be a pretty big market.