This post has been a long time coming. Just over six months ago (on the 21st October 2012, at about 12:30pm to be precise), I had a conversation with my good friend Robyn Trainer. She's about 363 days older than me, and was telling me how, since being 25 she had found the world to be a more difficult place to get by in, that things which used to be easy were now harder. I, in my relative youth, had little sympathy for this argument.
Another good friend of ours, Chris Juby, joined in. He's about 2935 days older than me, and added that after 30, life is not disimilar to the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan (that wasn't exactly what he said, but the impression was comparable). It was thus determined that you are at your peak from 21-24, and that things are downhill from there (or uphill, depending on how you take your metaphors).
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| Life after 24 |
It just so happened that the 21st of October was exactly six months before I turned 25, thus giving me only six months within which to achieve anything. I was not happy with this. I was, and am, determined to prove this hypothesis wrong.
Therefore, I have spent six months coming up with a list of 25 things to do after I turned 25, with the intent that this would show life as more fun, and me as more able to enjoy things than before turing 25.
Some of them are difficult, some are easier. Some are stupid, some are more sensible. Some are common 'bucket-list' items, others are more obscure. They are all united by the simple fact that, they are things I have never done before.
So, in no particular order (apart from the order that I wrote them down):
25 things to do whilst 25 (that I’ve never done before):
1. Road-trip the length of the country, from John O’Groats to Land’s End, without using motorways.
2. Make a short film
3. Compile my family tree
4. Run a marathon
5. Learn how to code
6. Swim across the river
7. Go to a regular party in fancy dress
8. Learn how to plaster a wall
9. Join a political protest
10. Read or watch the complete works of Shakespeare (all the plays)
11. Learn how to ballroom dance
12. Be a vegan for a week
13. Have a pint in all the pubs in Durham
14. Learn to juggle and ride a unicycle
15. Attempt to become a member of Mensa
16. Learn to ride a horse
17. Build an item of furniture
18. Cycle across the country
19. Memorise Pi to 31 significant figures
20. Learn a foreign language
21. Learn how to sail
22. Learn how to do a backflip
23. Finish The Times prize crossword
24. Plant a tree that will live longer than me
25. Invest some money
Thus far it's not going especially well.
I am training for my marathon, and turned up at Chris' door last week asking for a lift home (he lives about 2 miles away, and I was nearer his house than mine) because I had run lots (though not a full marathon) and was in great, great pain. This does not bode well.
I hope to keep you updated as to how my progress is going, both in the marathon and the other things.
(Cheeky plug for http://www.justgiving.com/JohnCastling)
I'm more likely to do this now, because Robyn and her husband Phil, have just moved to the lovely climes of Gloucestershire, and I'd like to prove to her that I am doing this thing, and that getting old doesn't mean getting boring.
Here's to hoping that I'm not wrong.
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