In the 2007 film List of things to do before you die Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play the 2 primary characters who reject experimental treatment in response to a terminal cancer diagnosis. Instead, they embark on a series of energetic foreign escapades.
Since then, the term “bucket list” – an inventory of experiences or achievements that should be accomplished before you “kick the bucket” or die – has turn out to be commonplace.
You can read the list of articles seven cities it’s essential to visit before you die or 100 Bucket list Australian travel experiences.
However, there’s a more serious side to the concept of wish lists. One of the important thing types of suffering at the top of life there’s regret for things that were left unsaid or unfinished. Thus, wish lists can function a type of insurance against potential regret.
The bucket list seek for adventure, memories and meaning takes on a life of its own with the diagnosis of a life-limiting illness.
IN test published this week, we spoke to 54 people with cancer and 28 of their friends and family. For many, traveling was a key item on their wish list.
Why is traveling so essential?
There are many the reason why travel plays such a key role in our ideas of a “life well lived.” Travel is usually associated with essential things life transitions: a youthful gap 12 months, a journey of self-discovery in the 2010 film Eat, pray, lovei.e. the favored character of the “gray nomad”.
The meaning of a journey isn’t just in regards to the destination, and even in regards to the journey itself. For many individuals, planning a visit is equally essential. A cancer diagnosis affects people’s sense of control over their future, questioning their ability to write down their very own life story or plan their travel dreams.
Mark, the recently retired husband of a girl with cancer, told us about their travel plans which have stalled:
We’re at that time in our lives immediately where we were going to leap right into a caravan and go on an enormous road trip and that form of thing, and now (our plans are) on blocks in the shed.
For others, a cancer diagnosis meant an urgent need to ascertain things off their bucket list. Asha, a girl with breast cancer, told us that she all the time desired to “get things done,” but a cancer diagnosis made things worse:
So I needed to do the entire trip, I now needed to empty my bucket list, which sort of threw my partner over the sting.
People dreamed of journeys starting from whale watching in Queensland to polar bears in the Arctic, from driving a caravan across the Nullarbor Plain to skiing in Switzerland.
Uwe Bergwitz/Shutterstock
Nadia, who was 38 after we spoke to her, said traveling with her family brought back essential memories and gave her a way of vitality despite her health problems. She told us how being diagnosed with cancer gave her the prospect to live to a younger age relatively than wait until retirement:
I feel I’ve been through more in the last three years than many 80-year-olds.
But traveling is dear
Of course, traveling is dear. It’s no coincidence that Nicholson’s character in “The Bucket List” is a billionaire.
Some people we spoke to had emptied their savings, assuming they might now not need to supply elder care or a pension. Others used insurance payouts or charity work to meet their dreams.
But not everyone can do it. Jim, a 60-year-old whose wife was diagnosed with cancer, told us:
We actually bought a brand new automotive and (talked about) buying a brand new caravan (…) But I even have to work. It could be nice if there was a bit Christmas tree in the back, but whatever.
Not all items on the wish list were expensive. Some decided to spend more time with family members, take up a brand new hobby or buy a pet.
Our research shows that planning and checking items off an inventory can provide people a way of self-determination and hope for the longer term. It was a technique to exert control in the face of a disease that could make people feel powerless. Asha said:
This disease won’t control me. I’m not going to take a seat back and do nothing. I need to travel.
Something we “should” do?
Wish lists are also a manifestation of a broader culture that places emphasis on what catches the attention consumption AND efficiencyeven until the top of life.
Indeed, people have told us that traveling may be exhausting, expensive and stressful, especially after they are struggling with symptoms and unintended effects of treatment. Nevertheless, they felt that traveling was something thatshould” to do.
As our research shows, travel can have profound meaning. But a life well-lived doesn’t need to be extravagant and adventurous. Finding what matters is a deeply personal journey.