This is the part of life when you begin to think about things like how much stuff you have to do in order to: Sell your house, change your world, retire, travel, etc…
This is a bucket list era.
In those stages of life we’ve forgotten we have, this part of it is never explained to the young because we want them to succeed, to do better than us, to not have to worry about retirement or selling a house or having to change their world because the money isn’t there.
And really, this is totally unrealistic. This should be called the ‘winding down’ stage of life, preparing to NOT have your children have to deal with your own shit, the unpaid bills, selling YOUR house, dumping your stuff, dealing with death certificates and wills and credit card debts or loans.
But really, this is a divergent path than the one I started thinking about as I began writing this.
Let’s talk about a real bucket list. Something that you can do to rid yourself of part of the burden of life so you can move on and do better things, fun things. Things that don’t involve legal assistance.
Travel. I remember when we were kids in a neighborhood full of middle-class folks. We didn’t travel. The furthest I got was to the neighborhood grocery store. Or with my folks traveling 30 miles down the road to visit relatives. We didn’t have money to travel.
Now, everyone travels. The kids we had are traveling with THEIR kids to parts of the world we had no clue about as youngsters. And it’s wonderful. Travel is easy, fun, adventurous and if you can plan even small trips out — out of your state, for example, or your part of the world, then do it. Even just to the water if you live by a mountain or to a mountain if you live in the tropics. Truly. It doesn’t take that much money, anymore and it will open your eyes to potential, possibility and mental progress.
There are a huge amount of young people ‘couch’ hopping through resources on the Web, with transportation opportunities via car sharing or ad hoc rentals from the local townsfolk. The first time someone I knew went out of country it was to a hostel in Israel and I thought that was the greatest thing I’d heard. You could travel and rent in a place that wasn’t a motel or hotel ($$$$) and be a part of a culture you’ve never known before. Then other possibilities opened up via the Web and suddenly, everyone’s traveling whether they have money or not. Very nice.
But even small trips – trips outside the city, outside the world you inhabit daily, THESE are the trips that will expand your mind and hopefully allow you to see possibilities of going further down the road than you’ve ever been.
Go… for… it.
Kristi Sprinkle
Onlyhuman 