Happy Birthday, to me! A whole bunch of coincidences came together for this moment: it’s a Wednesday, so there’s a new List of Six on this blog that I do, and it’s also my birthday, and it’s my 40th birthday. How about that? I’m 40! As of today! I’ve been writing this blog all through my 30s and let me tell you…life just keeps rolling along. I got no life lessons, people. Nothing. I’m still as interested in comic books and LEGOs as I was a decade ago.

So what to do for my List of Six on my 40th birthday? I thought about doing a fun list, like what comic book characters I hope to write someday. But I did that list last year and forgot that I did. Oh well. So I thought up another idea: what are things on my bucket list? I’ve got maybe 40 more years on this planet — if I’m lucky — and what am I going to do with those years? Hopefully, these six things, at some point.

Join me after the jump for six things on my life’s bucket list that I will hopefully complete before I die. And they’re all pretty surface level. Nothing silly like ‘fall in love again’ or ‘make a million dollars’. Just dumb Sean stuff. Also, other than the #1, the entries on this list are not in any particular order. They’re just in the way they came to me as I was writing.

6. Play a full Dungeons & Dragons campaign with friends

I have never played a real Dungeons & Dragons game. I’ve played DnD video games. I’ve sat in as a guest on some games for a single night. And I’ve watched live plays on the internet. But I’ve never gotten together with a group of friends to play our own campaign and see it through. I could probably find a group somewhere in my area, but I’d rather it be with friends or family I already know. My brother is big into DnD and runs a few games, but he lives in another state. A friend of mine is big into DnD and also plays with people, but she lives in another state. So I guess I’m just gonna have to move to another start if I want to play Dungeons & Dragons with friends and/or family. Baldur’s Gate 3 is sufficing for now.

5. Visit Australia

I want to go to Australia and see a kangaroo in person, among other wildlife. I’ve always been fascinated by Australian wildlife for some reason. I want to pet a baby platypus. I wanna see a Koala in the wild, or in a zoo, wherever. The only problem is that Australian is, like, a 17-hour plane ride away, and I’m terrible on planes. I’m a big, fat guy, and the last time I flew it was pretty miserable. So either I shell out a million dollars for first class for 17 hours, or I get in shape. Surely one of those will be possible in my remaining lifetime.

4. See the Grand Canyon

I’m not one for travel or sight seeing. It’s just not my thing. Probably because I’m really out of shape and don’t want to bother. But that’s neither here nor there. I just don’t care about sight seeing. Other than the Grand Canyon. That’s the one thing on my list I want to see someday. It should be possible. Granted, I live in New York, on the complete opposite side of the country from the Grand Canyon. But it should still be possible.

3. See Big Sky Country and the Milky Way

Is this a sight? Maybe. It’s another thing I thought of that I want to see while I was writing that previous entry. Apparently, Big Sky Country is in Montana, where the world just stretches on forever, and the sky is bigger and more full of stars than a suburban/city boy like me has ever seen before. I’ve seen stars. I’ve been out in the wilderness (when I was a kid). But I’ve never been somewhere so clear, so free of light pollution that the whole Milky Way just opened up above me. I guess I’d like to see that someday.

2. Be in a professional, creative writers room

Even though Hollywood studios are likely trying to get rid of this thing (I fully support the strikers!), the idea of a writers room sounds so cool to me. Like, for a TV show, where a group of writers come together to plot out and then script a season of television. Or an episode of television. Or whatever actually goes on in these things. I don’t actually know. You just hear stories about writers rooms. I’d live to actually work in one, but maybe I’d be fine with just visiting as an invited guest? Not like a Make-A-Wish thing, but, like, a guest in a professional capacity. Because, you see…

1. Professionally publish a story

I want to be a fiction writer. I’ve always wanted to be a fiction writer, even when I was a little kid. I have fan fiction on the internet from my high school days. I’ve been self-publishing my own comic book for years now — Gamer Girl & Vixen — and that project is still going strong. I’ve got a ton of ideas. I’m taking a class on comic writing. I just…I dunno. I lack the drive and the work ethic to really push myself. It’s actually an idea I’m going to try to explore in one of my projects, Cover Bard. But still. Someday, somehow, I hope one of my stories catches on somewhere and I get to publish it for real. Maybe I’ll write a book and somebody will buy it. Maybe some fancy publisher will accept a comic book pitch. Maybe Marvel or DC will actually hire me to write one of their superhero comics. These are my dreams, hopes, goals and whatnot for the future. The only one that really matters and the hardest one to achieve.

Here’s hoping.

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