APOCooter (
Mistychic12 (
APOCooter (5:12:17 PM):yeah, I don't have actually list, like I sat down to make one, but every time I see something cool, I try to remember it.
I'm reading Deadline by Chris Crutcher. It's amazing. It's about this guy who finds out just before his senior year in high school that he's got a rare blood disease. He decides he's not going to tell anyone, nor is he going to get treatment. He's just going to go balls out in everything he does.
His big idea at the beginning of the book is that he has to fit an entire adult life into one year. This led me to ponder what I want to achieve and do before I die. So I actually sat down and made a list.
The Obligatory:
Scuba diving
Bunging jumping
Hang gliding
Sky diving
Seriously, who doesn't want to do these? There's nothing incredibly personal here. I'm not what one might call an adrenaline junkie, or at least, I don't get my rush jumping out of planes, but those are things that I want to experience.
The Tests:
Train Muay Thai
Achieve a BJJ black belt
Roll with an ADCC/BJJ world champion
Compete in an MMA bout
The BJJ black belt would be an accomplishment years in the making; probably one that I would savor the most. A love for wrestling and grappling has been awoken in me; I am amazed by the beauty, complexity, and grace of the sport ever time I watch it. I want to learn and embrace those secrets as best I can.
As for rolling with a world champion, the same idea applies across many different activities. I'm fascinated by the mystique of greatness. I can throw an arm bar like BJ Penn, play Magic like Jon Finkel, or take someone's back like Marcelo Garcia, but the greats are simply on a whole other level, and it intrigues me as to how and why that is. Interaction with them in the area of their greatness would give me a window into that.
I don't get my rushes jumping out of planes and off cliffs. I get them through competition. I love nothing more than being locked in conflict with another person. It's not about ranking myself in reference to others, though that happens imply because of the nature of competition. Competition isn't about other people, it's about me. It sounds cliché to say that to win you have to want it more, but that's essentially true. The ones who want it prepare for it. The ones who want it play tighter. They care about the outcome, and adjust accordingly. This is an internal process that depends very little on the outside forces. Competition is simply using another person as a tool to test myself.
The first three are basically means to achieve the fourth. Am I crazy for wanting to engage in a full contact fight? I'd probably have to be. What I find interesting is that I don't think I'm a particularly violent person. I don't enjoy hurting other people. But there's something about fighting- it's simultaneously the pinnacle and the primal of human competition.
The Accomplishments:
Bowl a 300 game
Play in the Magic Pro Tour
And then there are the activities that I've given myself nearly wholesale to. I've invested so much of myself- in time, in energy, in money- into bowling and Magic, that I want to be able to say that I've reached the pinnacle. The more obvious pinnacle is a professional money finish, or a Pro Tour top 8, but I know my limits. I know I probably can't win a professional level, but damn it if I can't compete there.
The Personal:
To be a good teacher, husband, father.
The Finale:
This should have been in the first category, but I assure you, if I try it, I'll most certainly kill myself.
Wing suit base jumping:
I know this list is going to get longer still. Maybe I don't have as much time as I'd like to think. Then again, people rarely do.
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