in this lifetime

"twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed in the tings that you didn't do than the ones that you do. so throw off your bowlines. sail away from the safe harbor. catch the trade winds in your sails. explore. dream. discover."

- mark twain

a few years back, i have written down things that i'd like to do in this lifetime. some of it i've done over the past few years. the list has been mutating over the years (and i'm pretty sure that it will still evolve) but the underlying theme remains the same -- to explore, to dream and to discover. and to go in the path of my bushi-do.

here's the list:

1. see the aurora borealis
2. travel to the 4 places i'd like to go in the country: batanes, romblon, sagada (december 2003), and palawan (summer 2004, for wwf)
3. have my own food business (july 2006, c+c personal caterers)
4. write a story and publish it (march 2006, article in men's health magazine philippine edition)
5. play competitive tennis, even one local tournament
6. learn how to scuba dive (september 2001, dive and trek)
7. go to an olympics
8. run a triathlon
9. join in one of the builds for habitat for humanity or gawad kalinga
10. learn how to bike (december 2007, varsity hills)
11. go skydiving
12. go whitewater rafting (october 2002, tinglayan run)
13. look at the ceiling of the sistine chapel
14. play with glowing algae in the water (may 2002, solana reef)
15. go on a safari in the serengeti
16. really learn a foreign language
17. go on a silent retreat ( september 2001, sacred heart novitiate)
18. be on a hot air baloon ride
19. watch a moon set (april 2006, lake caliraya)
20. design or co-design the house (may 2004 to june 2005)
21. perform in front of an audience (september 2004, bar in anonas)
22. go on a cross country train ride
23. learn how to surf -- siargao, here i come!
24. go to south america and trek to machu picchu
25. get to communicate (at least write) with one of my heroes, johann olav koss
26. try out the trapeze and complete one round
27. attend and participate in a world youth day
28. learn yoga
29. make a clay or metal sculpture
30. swim and play with dolphins (i have swam with sharks, manta rays, turtles, and a baby whale but haven't swam with a dolphin)
31. have a watsu
32. attend ted
33. submit a literary work to the palanca
34. (as an adult), do a sandcastle and watch it be washed away
35. be on a roadtrip (december 2003)
36. make a snow angel -- i live in the tropics, you know ;-)
37. go back to atimonan -- the place where i had my immersion back in 2000
38. go to intramuros, manila's walled city (march 2002)
39. live in another country for a while -- for work and graduate studies
40. become part of a crew in a yatch or sailboat
41. go to bhutan before i turn 30
42. climb and camp out on a mountain
43. work in an outdoor camp (february 2004 up to now, camp cali)
44. work for an environmental organization (january 2002 to september 2003, marine science institute)
45. be on the road to santiago
46. watch a football match live, preferably the english premiereship or the spanish league
47. watch wimbledon
48. hold a handstand -- i'm actually getting there
49. learn the constellations in the sky
50. replace my passport not because it has expired but because there's no more space left for the immigration to stamp on