when I retire

When I retire

I will live an unglamourous life

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I will stay in the islands that nobody would have ever known

I will name the forests I’ve been to

I will travel, and forget where I’ve been to, and travel again

I will send so many postcards that my friends stop sharing their addresses with me

I will do things just for the sake of it

I will examine my desires a bit more

Most desires might have been unspoken during the entire lifetime, maybe I wanna read them out loud

I will become a sailor for some time, bring some oranges and Walt Whitman books onboard

I will unlearn everything I’ve learnt and start all over again

I will play the most badass bass

I will read Siddhartha again

I will swim so fast, compete in the 60-and-over age group

I will cry out loud and laugh out louder

I will plant my backyard full of watermelons and sunflowers

I will practice the dazzling études until they live in my hands

I will live in every direction, live all over the place

I will forget what I’ve forgotten

I will build a bridge

I will design calendars for myself so I can see my time

I will learn to fly a plane

I will be SO surrounded by good music

I will climb up however high I can, on whatever surface

I will do more origami

I will make music from the sounds I’ve collected, like a creek, a flower breaking open its bud, the sounds of cooking, the clack of chess pieces

I will climb trees

I will laugh for no reasons

I will clean my desktop

I will play Rummikub

I will build an unsmart home, and then build a very smart home

I will design a Lego series where you only understand the first set when you finish building the last

I will feel loneliness

I will write a book about my life of conquests far and wide

I will go diving

I will host hackathons

I will contribute to wikiHow by writing “I lived a life of so much fun, and here’s how:”

I will invent a language that is efficient, spare, and beautiful

I will become a tour guide of a city I have not been to yet

I will read quantum physics books in Copenhagen

I will create an eternal game series like Mario Bros

I will host dinners with interesting menus

I will feel powerful

I will fight a lawsuit

I will sell very delicious hot dogs at concerts

I will run a book shop that only sells books I like

I will press some really good juice

There will always be a mountain to climb when I feel like conquering

I will become an Uber driver

I will go back to my elementary school, middle school, high school, college

I will swim at the Shenzhen Bay swimming pool

I will have so many WOW moments

I will respect randomness, fill my life with more true randomness and less pseudorandomness

I will learn that it’s okay to not complete or not do something

I will learn that everything is okay

I will learn that it’s not okay to be okay with everything

I will miss what I should miss and what I shouldn’t

I will leave behind some virtues and some beautiful things

I will complete my own stubborn and incomplete goodbye, and walk to the end of a world

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after “Retirement Plan” (2024), the Oscar-nominated animated short written and directed by John Kelly, co-written by Tara Lawall, voiced by Domhnall Gleeson

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Thank you, Norway. I came here to ask questions to everyone, including myself. This list grew here, between calls and walks and forests I can’t name yet but will. See you soon!

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