My Buried Life

http://animoto.com/play/OSFr3X1jH0yAlO0wMjDHQQ

Author's Note

There aren't very many things that make you think about yourself, your friends, your family, your values, and your life quite like writing a bucket list does. I've tried to make this as sincere as I could - I wanted this list, as much as possible, to reflect my passions, values, and interests. Chief among them is music; it's something that has been very important to me for a long time. It really feels good to sit back and listen to something that sounds not just cool, but also beautiful; even better is the feeling when you're playing or singing and you know you're creating something beautiful. Until a couple of years ago, languages were almost an obsessive hobby for me. For a while now, I haven't really spent any time learning new languages, but I still appreciate and enjoy hearing different languages, speaking the ones that I know, and I hope to learn a few more before I die.

I hope this list gives you a bit of a sense of who I am. Thanks for reading!

1. Perfect my Spanish.
2. Perfect my French.
3. Learn German.
4. Go to Europe.
5. Meet my family in Germany.
6. Go to Chile and meet my family there.
7. Get married in one of these.*
    Photo by user More Good Foundation on Flickr. Creative Commons Licence
8. Have kids.
9. Study music in University.
10. Join Prairie Voices.
11. Sing an Eric Whitacre piece in a choir.
12. Compose a great choral work and have it published.
13. See Pentatonix live.
14. Go to Japan.
15. Visit every province in Canada.
16. See the Eric Whitacre Singers live.
17. Give my kids great names.
18. Learn to cook.
19. Keep in touch with friends after high school.
20. Learn to play the piano.
21. Have a job that I love.
22. Own a home.
23. Get to know my Dad's side of the family
24. Learn to play the Cello.
25. Learn to play a brass instrument.
26. Continue to learn to be less socially awkward.
27. Make many friends from different cultures.
28. Climb a mountain.
29. Do humanitarian work in a developing country.
30. Learn how to code something useful.
31. Exercise more.
32. Go on a tour of Parliament in Ottawa.*
      Photo by user West Annex News. Creative Commons Licence.
33. Live in another country.
34. Become close with one of my cousins.
35. Stay close with at least one friend for a lifetime.
36. Write a great original story.
37. Write beautiful poetry.
38. Invent something.
39. Serve a mission for my church.
40. Have a jam session with many instruments and some quality recording equipment at my disposal.
41. Conduct a great choir.
42. Learn how to record and mix quality audio.
43. Learn how to record and edit quality video.
44. Raise a musical family.
45. Write great original songs and have them produced.
46. Represent Canada officially at some kind of international event, competition, or festival.*
      Photo by Jared Grove. Creative Commons Licence
47. Remain friends with the band/music teachers after high school.
48. Live comfortably.
49. Don't overwork myself.
50. Get more sleep.

*The photo in the video is a photo of a laptop screen showing the original photo. You can't really tell in the video.

Now What?

Prairie Voices is an award-winning community choir with singers aged 18 - 25. They're amazing and I love listening to them (performance samples here and here.)

One of my bucket list items (number ten on the list here) is to join Prairie Voices. This weekend, starting on Friday they're having auditions for next year's choir and I'll be auditioning on Sunday. This is my "Now What?"