The End of the Tracks (where the fountains fly into your eyes)

When trying to come up with five set things I want to have possessed/accomplished by the end of my life, I had a really hard time thinking of precise goals, most likely because I don’t have many of those yet. I mean, I’ve got goals for my next few years or so, but I’ve never been a bucket list kind of person—I’ve always thought of my future in much vaguer terms than that. So, while I can’t honestly name five specific things I want to possess or have experienced when it’s time for me to shuffle off this mortal coil, I have been able to narrow my goals down to five concrete categories:

-Love/Family:

I think it’d be kinda cool to fall in love at least once, and before I die I hope I’ll have the opportunity to pass on some of my bad habits to my children, only to have my parents laugh at me when my own progeny won’t listen to a damn word I say.

-Material Possessions:

However little they may matter in the long run, I’d like the opportunity to try a few of the finer things in life—though I understand academically that all things are transient, I still think it would be fun to own, say, a medieval castle (retrofitted for modern living, of course), complete with secret passages and jester. Failing that, maybe a custom tailored suit—I’m not picky. They say you can’t take it with you? I’m taking it with me.

-Service:

I have been particularly fortunate thus far in life, and it would be selfish of me not to try and repay the world that’s treated me so kind. Whether it’s through a career saving lives in medicine or just heavy philanthropy, I plan to help somehow; I believe I have been given the capabilities necessary to make some people’s lives better, and that in itself is an obligation—because otherwise I’d just be a jerk.

-Accomplishment:

It would be dishonest for me to say this wasn’t one of my bigger hang-ups, life-wise. I still haven’t decided what I plan to actually do with my life, but I can’t die until I’ve done something. Not something dumb like “worked loyally for X company for fifty years” or “was a U.S. Senator”—something important, or at very least something that’ll affect a lot of people positively, even if that just means bringing a little more light into their days, maybe through something like music. I don’t need to live forever, but being recognized as having made a contribution to society somehow would go a long way towards making me feel like my life’s meant something.

-Cool Stuff:

These are all the rest of the things that’ll go into making life worthwhile for my next however-many years until I finally croak, and they generally range from “self-enrichment” to simply “fun”. I definitely want to spend time traveling and see the world, I want to learn at least one more language, if at all possible I want to fly with a jetpack, learn a martial art, and stop a mugging. I want to do enough fun and fulfilling stuff during my life that, when I’m finished, I won’t need reincarnation to tie up my loose ends.

Out of all of these amorphous goal-categories, only those of “service” and “accomplishment” could really be called “valuable to humanity”. Service is valuable insofar as it helps individuals, and I hope that, whatever I accomplish in life, it’ll mean something to humanity. I don’t know if I’ve answered the question at all well, but at this point that’s the best I can do—after all, I haven’t really decided on what I plan to do with my life yet. With any luck, though, I’ve got a lot more time ahead of me with which to decide on more specific goals. Ultimately, I guess my overriding ambition is just to be able to look back on it all at the end of my life, and smile.

--Wistfully,

SG