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I took this little test a while ago, so I’ve done some updating on the answers. Well, no, it’s actually a checklist. It had 125 “crazy” things on it & I had to check off things I’ve done before. I decided to take it – not just to see how insane or goofy I really am,  but to find out if I die tomorrow will I have some great stories to tell people on the other side. Did I live life to absolute fullest? Did I have enough absurd & delusional moments to call my life great? I guess it was a bit like a test, a test to see if you’ve really lived.

Some of the items threw me. And it wasn’t the items that were actually worthy to be deemed CRAZY that got my attention. It was items like  “watched the sun set with someone you care about” or “stayed up all night”. These aren’t crazy things! They’re great (I almost want to say  pretty rational & normal) things that SHOULD be a part of our
lifestory. I mean, if those are things that you call crazy, then I think you made need to reevaluate what’s important in life. Life is messy. Crazy. A little off kilter. That’s what makes it life.

So I ticked off the items that I’ve done… By the end of it, I realized that my life isn’t so mediocre. If I die tomorrow, I can say, “I had a good run. It was fun. Hopefully, I’ll get into heaven.” (LMAO) But in the grand scheme of things, I want to be able to say that “I had an AWESOME run.” I want to be gray and old and pretty much tantalizing in my grandkids’s eyes (assuming I’ll even have children. lol).

This random little checklist sent to me by a friend woke me up. I’m too young to be serious & have a picture-perfect-there’s-no-way-I’m-deviating-from-this plan for life. Sometimes you gotta wing it and if something great comes along, grab it and hold on for the ride.  I’m too damn young to sink into mediocrity. I’m fighting it. It’s not to say I’m not satisfied with a normal life, I’m just saying that we have to keep striving for it to be spectacular. Striving well but not to the point that it’s tiring, of course. Just enough that the struggle is memorable, colorful, engaging, fun, thought-provoking or worthy.

Life can be awesome if we let it take us on an adventure once in a while (everyday, if you’re that lucky). It’s okay to do crazy things – if it makes us happy, if it colors the canvas, if rids us of regrets, if it helps another person, if it gives us great stories to tell our grandkids, if it saves the planet, if  makes us laugh (truly laugh like back when we were young, and totally content with little things), if it lets us reach the stars & makes dreams come true.

Sure, sanity is great, but can’t we rock the boat every few days? Can’t we go a little nuts for the benefit of that kid, that dreamer, that visionary that’s inside of us? People are so intent on conforming to the norm and scrambling for stability, that they forget that if it weren’t for people trying out crazy things, we wouldn’t have great inventions & magnificent works of art, literature & film. A little insanity isn’t gonna kill us. And if it does, well hey you were
headed there anyway. LOL.

It’s not the destination that matters after all. Hello! The destination is a cemetery somewhere. Like I said, that’s where we’re all heading to – death. What matters is the journey, the ride; getting there is the fun part. To quote Jack London: “I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb  meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent plant. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.”


Right on, Jack! We should go freakin’ crazy… I’ve done 85 out of the125 crazy things. An improvement from my previous 79, for sure, but not by much. It’ll be fun to make a list of my own. This reminds me of my “bucket list” which I made 7 years ago (waaaay before that movie was ever mad). I’ll definitely be crossing out and ticking off more items on that list. Life’s what you make it after all. Now I’m going for 90!