"Corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and working class mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor. Each adventure adds another check to their list."Beautiful story line huh? For those of you who watched it with tears and a thirst for life, ultimately faced the reality that life is too short. We must live while we can until it's too late. No regrets. But it didn't taken a Hollywood film to help me realize and fully understand that phrase. There have been many moments in my life where I've stared at life square in the face. Hardships, depression, death, sickness. Any possible situation that allows you to jolt out of daydreaming and realize that the world is slipping through our fingers each day. This phrase became even more meaningful lately.
Recently, cancer once again made it's ugly presence known in my family. I thought March 2007 would be it's last appearance when my granddaddy was taken by pancreatic cancer, but I was definitely wrong. For several years now, my cousin, Cory, has been facing a tough battle with melanoma, one of the worst types of skin cancer. Though doctors and researchers have been on the case and trying to treat it with radiation and chemotherapy, the cancer spread to the brain, causing two cancerous tumors to appear. At Christmas this past year, Cory underwent major brain surgery to remove both tumors. Though the tumors were successfully removed, they have since returned. Cory is continuing to fight, and is a qualified candidate for an experimental drug to treat melanoma.
Besides affecting my mother's side of the family, cancer has also reared it's ugly face on my father's side of the family. My daddy's brother, Bill, is now facing a challenging time in his life. After suffering unbearable back pain, Uncle Bill went to the doctor for an MRI and found there was a large mass on one of his kidneys. Because the doctors were unsure of the cancer's severity, doctors removed his kidney and took it to be biopsied. As the doctor put it to my family, the tumor wasn't on the kidney, the kidney was on the tumor. Unfortunately, we received news several weeks ago that the tumor was in fact malignant. As of right now, we don't know much more because Uncle Bill is still healing from surgery. But we pray that his bout with cancer is over. We pray that both Cory and Uncle Bill will overcome such a deadly disease and join one of the many survivors of cancer. Dealing with the severity of these situations hasn't been easy, but I do know one thing, life is too short and precious to waste, which leads me to my new found idea.
Making the major step towards a healthier lifestyle was THE best decision I could have ever made for myself. Not only do I want to live longer, but there are still so many things in this world that I want to accomplish before I spend eternity in Heaven with my Lord. Thinking about these rough times and being reminded of "The Bucket List," I've often thought of why not making one of my own? I may not be personally battling cancer or any life-threatening illness, but I can make a list and go conquer the world, one item at a time.
Here's what I've come up with so far:
- Lose a total of 100 pounds and keep it off by the time I turn 26.
- Join a burlesque dance group here in Athens called The Modern Pinups (A whole blog post will be written on this very soon enough so watch out for it!).
- Walk a 5k for charity (The Color Run on March 31st).
- Make a personal dream come true with hard work and determination.
- Travel to as many states around the U.S. as I can before 50.
- Stomp grapes and make my own wine at a vineyard in Tuscany.
- Swim the waters of Greece.
- Visit the Egyptian pyramids.
- Feed a large alligator (haha).
- Learn Italian and speak it as fluently as I can.
- Learn how to play the piano.
- Master the skill of pole dancing.
- Marry the man I love unconditionally at the most beautiful ceremony imaginable.
- Write several books, including personal biography, children's literature and short stories.
- Go deep sea fishing and catch a swordfish.
- Become editor-in-chief at one of the premiere magazines in New York.
- Bake the perfect apple pie from scratch.
- Learn how to sew.
- Become a master of pottery making.
- Win big at a slot machine in Las Vegas.
- Dance in the streets of New Orleans during a traditional New Orleans style funeral.
- See the Northern Lights.
- Meet someone famous and interview them for a feature story.
- Plan a wedding that isn't my own.
- Make enough money someday to buy my dream car.
XoXo,
DJH
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