Never

For everything I’ve already done, heard, played and seen in my soon 34 years on this planet, there’s a ridiculous amount of things I haven’t yet done, heard, played or seen. Here goes.

I’ve never played Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V, Mario Kart, Call Of Duty, Halo, DOOM, Pokémon, The Sims, Battlefield, Counter-Strike, Madden, Project Gotham Racing, Tom Clancy’s whatever, Gears Of War, The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Resident Evil, Crash Bandicoot, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, The Last Of Us, Deus Ex, BioShock, Portal, Fallout or many other best-selling and popular games.

Never!? Never.

For all the movies I’ve watched in my life, I’ve never seen Schindler’s List, Seven Samurai, Once Upon a Time in the West, Psycho, Read Window, Gone with the Wind, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Pianist, The Shining, Citizen Kane, any Toy Story, Black Swan, Oldboy, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sting, Some Like It Hot, Up, Pan’s Labyrinth, 12 Years a Slave, Hotel Rwanda, The Princess Bride, Ghandi, The King’s Speech and many other must-see and popular films.

Never!? Never.

I’ve never traveled to anywhere in Asia leaving aside Russia and Turkey (indeed, that means I’ve never been to China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Macao, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mongolia etc.). If that shocks you, get this: I’ve also never been to Africa (no, not even Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco or Algeria). I’ve also never been to Australia or New Zealand.

Never!? Never.

Here are some books I’ve never read (or at least don’t remember reading): Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, The Canterbury Tales, Crime and Punishment, One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Moby Dick, The Trial, Hamlet, Midnight’s Children, War and Peace, In Search of Lost Time, Anna Karenina, The Grapes Of Wrath, Catch-22 or any other book I would really love to smell and start enjoying.

Never!? Never.

But at least I’ve been to a lot of places in Europe, the United States and South America, right? Yeah, right. Here’s a fraction of the cities I’ve never visited: Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, Detroit, Budapest, Santiago, Chicago, Rome, Bogotà, Washington D.C., Tallinn, Las Vegas, Marseille, Lima, Minsk, Caracas, Montevideo, Riga, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Austin, Belgrade, Seattle, Dallas, Sofia, Glasgow or any other city that deserves to be visited at least once in a lifetime.

Never!? Never.

I (used to) watch a fair amount of TV shows, but I’ve never seen a single episode of Mad Men, Game Of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, The Wire, Sherlock, Firefly, Arrested Development, House Of Cards, Dexter, House M.D., Deadwood, Archer, Six Feet Under, Battlestar Galactica, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Futuruma, The West Wing, Community, Entourage, The Newsroom or any other well-rated, popular TV series.

Never!? Never.

I could probably make a lot more lists: great music albums I’ve never really listened to, popular semi-extreme activities like skydiving, (kite)surfing or rock climbing I’ve never done, music festivals I’ve never been to, amazing comic books I’ve never read, common food I’ve never eaten, and so on until the end of days.

But you get the point.

It’s not that I hate video games, on the contrary. I absolutely love watching films and consider myself a bit of a movie buff even (yes even considering the list above). I consider myself relatively well-traveled and if it would be possible to see the entire world in a lifetime, I would probably give it a try and fully enjoy it. I adore going to and discovering fascinating new places and cities across the globe, and binge-watching good TV shows, and attentively listening to music albums while I read great books, and so on.

And so the lists above will probably baffle you in some way or another. The problem, as usual, is – as you could have guessed – an unsolvable lack of time to do all of the above. Pick one, and I’ll have to give up on a few other things to do or places to visit during my lifetime. Pick a few, and the same happens – only exponentially. And that’s not even the time I spend ‘working’ (in my case passionately reading and writing about technology), playing with or trying my best to raise our son, spending quality time with my wife, family and friends, doing household chores or just mucking about. Not everything fits neatly into a list.

And if you give it a good think, there’s a pretty decent chance your lists are equally – if not more – “embarrassing”. I bet you have your own dark secrets, hidden in the closet. In fact, if you’re reading this post and get inspired to make your own ‘never’ lists – just do it.

And remember the good old adage: better late than never.

(Image credit: Joshua Barnett / Flickr)