The "Chuck-It List"
 

For some reason the term "bucket list" has always irritated me, so I was delighted to read this article in the Washington Post https://wapo.st/3EfRUwQ (gifted), about about admitting to yourself there are some things on your list that you'll never do. I immediately decided I am not going to purchase a cruising sailboat -- I have enough trouble with my little skiff. How about you?

I don't like bucket lists and certainly don't have one, more of a go with the flow person.

I'll never visit New Zealand, or Australia or Canada or so many other places I once longed to go. I don't fly, mostly for climate reasons, but also because I came to hate the whole process. So flying is on my chuck it list.

I'm not going to ride a bike again. I can't do it. Three wheels good, two wheels fall off and hurt myself. Consequently a biking holiday is on the chuck it list.

I wish I could put gardening on the chuck it list.

It's hard to imagine I'll ever return to Russia, but I'm glad I went when it was more friendly with the US.

I've always wanted to see the Great Wall of China but I'll have to chuck it if they don't improve their air quality.

Never had a bucket list, so there's nothing to chuck:)

Same here

Same.

Travel to Asia and South Pacific. Just too long a plane ride! Husband has been to Korea, Japan and China and when he got back, this was many years ago, he never said, "oh hon, we just have to go." Same for Africa, too old to worry about necessary shots, warring countries, also too far. Egypt still on my hoping-for list, we'll see. We have done several national parks, and perhaps will see a few more, but no desire to see all 59 or so of them. We have been very fortunate to travel to the places we did, and enjoyed every one of them, domestic and foreign.

Long haul nonstop fllights in economy class are out. Long haul being over 5 hours. The good news is the emergence of LCCs that have premium cabins. For example, Zipair lie-flat seats (too short for me, but roomy) to Japan and beyond. Premium economy seats are good.

I do have a travel bucket list. Machu Picchu has fallen off and Victoria Falls is barely hanging on.

A Corvette would be too hard to get out of now.

I like that the idea was originally a different (more appropriate word) that rhymes with chuck-it.

I have a long list of what I call “why bother” items. It’s been growing rapidly lately.

Aside from a number of “exotic” trips I won’t be taking (I’m looking at you, India), there are people I’m not going out of the way to see either. I purposely skipped a birthday party last weekend, and as I happily swam in my pool instead, future me was very grateful to the past me who made that decision.

Sometimes I do think this is a natural result of aging - a world shrinking down - and that’s concerning as I don’t want to become too insular. But a lot of it is that since Covid, many experiences became generally less satisfying and not worth the money or energy.

As I’ve opined in my usual unopinionated way many times here, I’ve always found the bucket list thing to be lame, at best. But I admit to being genetically incapable of setting goals.

The thing I don’t get about bucket lists is what’s the benefit? Does going someplace that you’ve decided you have to visit make you a better person?

im not a bucket list person but people I know and love like having in mind a list of priorities and a goal. It’s got nothing to do with being a better person but just a way to structure things.

I'm a bucket list person. It's fun for me and my spouse to daydream about desired locales that are on the lists. Heck, I have several National Park lists (there are 63 now) to keep tabs on what we see (scratch off poster, water bottles with stickers you add, t-shirt with places to check off).

I also have some dream locations.

But we do reassess. Egypt is off the list unless it becomes more manageable --read many many unpleasant stories about general tourist harassment and also misogynistic harassment. I'm curious about many parts of China but given their government, won't visit unless there's political change. Same with Russia.

I get that, if for no other reason than I get satisfaction from organizing s#!t. I’ve always attributed that to my need for a sense of control over this Life thing that I really have no control over. 😎

I get that, too. But does it count if my dream locations are places that I’ve already experienced and which literally continue to appear (reappear, I guess) in my dreams?

who decides what counts?

I had thoughts of visiting lots of places in know now I’ll never go, and I don’t mind at all.
I do yearn to revisit places I’ve loved. Will I ? I don’t know.

It’s easier to add items to the chuck-it list if you’ve already acquired a satisfactory done-it list.

I agree, Nelson. DD and I are going to London again the end of September. It's one of our favorite places, and I had lots rather go back there than somewhere I'm not sure of. What I'm not sure of is how much more traveling I will do, so oldie but goodie suits me. Cruising is in my future.

I definitely have dream locations. There are so many places I haven’t been! And there are a few places I know I want visit again and again.

Truth!

'But we do reassess.'
Judge Schlegal for the win. Soooo true.
My 20-something self would have had exactly zero interest in some of our current destinations and activities.
And general lifestyle for that matter.

I am done. the chuck it

on my 'chuck it list' - India (not sure I want to be confronted by the disparity in classes), South America.. would love to see some parts, but just too far to fly from Australia, Africa - not going to happen.
Long Haul flying in Economy. Melbourne is so far from everywhere and my claustrophobia goes crazy with in those packed cabins.. Long Haul is greater than 5 hours.. maybe 8. After that it has to be premium or business.

wasting my time on people I really do not want to catch up with. another High School reunion has been posted on facebook. did it once 5 years ago and will not do it again.

Bucket lists don't have to be about places you have to tick off, they are the worst sort really.
It can include flying in a hot air balloon, walking a long distance path, going on a TV quiz show, or trying every flavour of ice cream at your local parlour, learning to swim or surf or sail or ride a bike or try spelunking or rock climbing. Challenging yourself, but the chuck it list comes in when you accept you are too old, too scared or just aren't that desperate to do something on the list.

There are tons of places I would love to visit but even if I were happy to fly I know I wouldn't get to because of money. There a tons of things I wish I had tried but didn't because I am a scaredy cat. My done it list is short compared to most on Fodor's. My do it list is even shorter. My chuck it list is consequently long.

So following in Heti’s thoughts. I have no interest in going in a hot air balloon, or in abseiling. Both ideas give me the screaming hebejeebies.

In the travel vein. I won’t go to India. I know some parts of it are very beautiful but the only friend I know who has been there, witnessed a small dead boy being added to someone else’s funeral pyre which is apparently common if you are poor. And their friend had the worst Delhi belly EVER!!! And I’m a bit prone to that at the best of times.

I’ve been to all the inhabited continents bar South America, so if I had a bucket list that would be on it. As for India, it’s hard work even as a tourist, but a fascinating country nevertheless. Everyone in our group of 16 got Delhi belly during the trip except me, but I succumbed when our outbound flight at Delhi Airport was late and we were given a free meal during the delay. 🤮

I'm not clamoring to return to India but would under the right circumstances. Before we went it was one of my favorite setting to read about either in fiction or nonfiction. Not so much now.

I like the thought of "dreaming" to return places. I suppose those aren't in the usual definition of "bucket list" but do count as dream locations.

I'd love to go in a hot air balloon (I think). Much more torn on skydiving and lean strongly toward "Chuck it."

Most important to making these bucket lists is determining whether it's really something you want for yourself or if you are following someone else's list. Easier to "Chuck it" when you realize you are taking someone else's vacations!

[QUOTE=mrwunrfl;1749142

A Corvette would be too hard to get out of now.[/QUOTE]

restoring old vehicles is DH’s retirement hobby so we attend cruise nights. Most of the owners are retirement age. Corvettes were never on his bucket list. Sadly one guy comes by himself in a brand new Vette. He and his wife decided they better order the new Vette nefore they got any older. She died before it came in.

as a teen I didn,t think I would ever go on an airplane. As I began to figure things out my strategy became “maximizing opportunities”. Our first family Caribbean vacation took place the winter my husband said he needed to go someplace warm. I had saved an article from the Boston Globe about a place I dreamed of visiting. Showed dh the article and he agreed it sounded great. I'm not sure where we would have gone if I hadn't spent time daydreaming over the sunday travel section.

so I was slower than most at goal setting but oh well, at least it eventually happened.

Quite some time ago I boight a vehicle capable of towing with a small sailboat in mind. Never learned to sail. Never bought the boat so that was an early chuck it. But I'm glad ds seems to have learned the technique of maximizing opportunities.

I'm not sure I will get to Europe again but not quite ready to chuck the idea. We really need to renovate some garden beds. Btw being where I am right now was on my bucket list when I was a teen but I chucked the idea of owning a horse because dh is not a horse lover and I decided I really didn,t want to muck out a stable every day. Neighbors had polo ponies. He played polo. She raised the kids and shoveled horse manure.

Totally agree and the key word is "accept". I've known people who didn't accept and they eventually wind up hurting themselves. (I'm winding down, hopefully far enough that it doesn't happen to me.)

Into the chuck-it list with that stuff, but there is a new try-this-now list. For example, in my case I'm trying model ship building. It didn't some out of nowhere, I've had an outsider interest for years, but now acting on it. My active friends were horrified when I mentioned I was taking up that hobby.

As far as buckets go, just hoping not to kick one too soon.

In my case it is called a change in priorities. Cannot nor will I speak for anyone else but seems pretty simple somehow.

I once met Chuck in a bar.

So did I and if you had heard those things he said about you...

I think that applies to everything in life.

Though I like to think of myself as somebody who's not easily swayed by advertising, the truth is that I find it very hard to resist. Which is why I try to avoid social media as much as possible.

Even more difficult to resist is the advice of people whose values I share....which is how I ended up traveling to a few places that disappointed me. As much in common as we might have with somebody, there's no guarantee that we will be equally enthralled by experiences. But I guess that's to be expected.

As for my international travel bucket list, I think there are only two places left on my bucket list. I've gone to all of the other places that were on my list starting many decades ago.

I've been out traveling solo, almost annually, since the age of seventeen and am now in my sixties. I've covered a lot of territory and almost all of the continents, some many times around. The only one I haven't been on is Antarctica which I have no desire to go to. As the saying goes, "I don't do cold." LOL! I have a friend who went decades ago, but had to sign up with a scientific excursion in order to go. She's a good 15- 20 years older than I am and went way back in the day. She said it was amazing.

There is one country that has been on my bucket list for decades, but that I didn't get to due to the war(s)). Lebanon. The war went on from 1975-1990 and then conflicts also started up again later. I had quite a few Lebanese friends back in the day and one's who had to leave Lebanon due to the conflict and immigrated here and ended up in the Los Angeles area, both Armenian Lebanese and non-Armenian Lebanese. I'm still in contact with some of them. Plus, I had Muslim coworker friends whose parents immigrated from Lebanon and I'm still friends with them. And an ex-boyfriend, from Qatar, back in the early 1980s, used to talk of Lebanon and how his extended family would go there regularly for great vacations.

One other place on my bucket list is Portugal. Although, I've been to Europe more times than I can remember, I never made it to Portugal which was mainly because I always based myself in DK for whole summers and it was so far to take trains to Portugal and flying, back in the day, cost a fortune. However, I did take trains as far down as southern Italy, but I was going there for a reason, to stay with a friend from here who was studying there, back in the mid 70s. It was a very long, slow train ride from DK to Naples.

I'm not going to say that I'll never get to either Portugal or Lebanon, but it might be a bit difficult to get to Lebanon. And now, there is the Covid situation thrown on top of everything else.

Happy Travels!

A friend (and my travel mentor) bought a home there in the 80s. She and her much younger husband would whisk off for long weekends/ short weeks a few times a year and then for a longer stay in summer. Flying out of Pensacola airport. That seemed so exotic to me. Their condo overlooked the ocean.

I wanted to go for years (and can't believe I've still not been) but my main goal was to buy pottery. Now I need more dishes like a need a hole in my head.

I'll get there one day, but my imagined shopping trip will have to remain imagined. I waited too long for that dream.

Chucking my chuck list

Wise words. Indeed, I had more than just vacation bucket lists in mind when I wrote my reply. It's very easy to go through life checking off the list of things you think you "should" do. Unexamined, you can end up feeling a bit empty if you checked it all off without thinking why you were.

Double "amen" to your last sentences---I've done the same. I have a friend who loves to plan out all his meals for a trip to hit known/important/trendy restaurants. I followed his lead a bit before I realized it doesn't contribute to my enjoyment of a trip.

Starrs, now you can go to Portugal for cork items. I bought a lovely purse and even saw a cork bathing suit in a shop window. And the custard tarts are indescribably delicious. They also had embroidered batiste baby clothes like we had back in the dark ages. I really liked Portugal.

I found my hot air balloon ride pretty meh. Okay, here I am floating around up here in Cappadocia looking at rock houses and caves as far as the eye can see. Maybe it was just me.

This is something that's always interested me, too. I've bought a couple of easy Bluejacket kits, with indifferent results. Making matters worse, I have a friend who is an expert, has restored models in museums, etc. Right now he specializes in Gloucester fishing schooners in bottles. I have one in my living room. Something to strive after, I guess!

me too!

Okay, you've successfully shifted me from pottery. It's back on my list. :-)


Hot air balloon rides have never interested me. My first boss (the pharmacist I worked for in high school) had one and did weekend adventures. Maybe I didn't like his approach to them but it made a bad impression on me. He would always ask me to come be in the chaser van. I'd look at him like he was crazy. I can't imagine a worse way to spend my weekend as a teen than to follow him around like the Wizard of Oz.