Epic Quest

Steve over at Nerd Fitness (one of my favorite blogs) has an Epic Quest of Awesome that I’m blatantly copying and I think you should copy too.

How does it work? You turn your life into a game.

Here’s a list of things that I hope to accomplish in the next few years/lifetime. Every item is worth 20% and every 100% I get to level up. I started this a year ago, on paper, but I like putting it on my blog so I can be reminded of all the awesome things there are yet to do. When I accomplish something I’ll update this list.

Completed Levels

Level One

Paid off my student loans – Dec 2013
Try the snack of Taiwan– Winter 2013
Laze on the beach and turn down drugs in Thailand – Winter 2014
Show a close Chinese friend my hometown/and favorite places – Summer 2014
Eat fresh bread on the streets of Xinjiang – Summer 2015

Level Two

• Go to the rainbow hills of Gansu Province – Summer 2015
• Be interviewed for a local magazine – Spring 2015 (it was a Xiamen travel magazine)
• Finally hike to the top of Yellow Mountain – Winter 2016
• I didn’t see my friends or sit in a cat cafe (because honestly they aren’t that special now and every major city in the world has them), but I did hike the forests and visit the temples of Japan – Oct 2016
• Win a Jimei Badminton Tournament – Third place! Oct 2017

Level Three

• Be interviewed for a national radio show – Interviewed on NPR’s Only a Game in December 2017 
• Write in cafes all over Paris – Summer 2018
• Make video series for blog – Fall 2018 started Badminton Becky YouTube channel
• Win a Xiamen Badminton Competition – Victor Competition 2019
• Find out if Vietnam is as annoying as backpacker say – Winter 2023 (It wasn’t I loved it)

Level Four

• Walk the width of England following Hadrian’s wall on the Coast to Coast Hike – Summer 2026

Here’s the rest of the list:

Asia

Be shocked by the over development of Tibet, but still awed by its majesty
Eat fresh bread on the streets of Xinjiang
Try the super fast South Korean internet
Visit Yumi, Abu, Sarah and Erikou all over Japan. Sit in a cat cafe
Laze on a beach and turn down drugs in Thailand
Find out if Vietnam is really as annoying as many backpackers say
Try the snacks of Taiwan

China specific

Sail down the Yangtze river and mourn the loss of the small villages along the 3 gorges damn, while secretly being impressed by the dam itself.
Freeze my ass off at the Harbin ice festival
Go to the rainbow hills in Gansu province
Finally hike to the top of Yellow Mountain
Visit all UNESCO world heritage sites (27/57 so far!)

Central/South America

Climb the pyramids in Chichen Itza
Think about Darwin at the Galapagos Islands.
Hike up to Macchu Picchu

North America

Visit the redwoods again, one of my favorite places
Drive cross-country using a different route than I did before
Show a close Chinese friend my hometown/and favorite places

Europe

Spend days in Edinburgh writing, nights wandering the streets of the city
Write in cafes all over Paris
Take a Christmas market river cruise
Visit all the Gaudi buildings in Spain
See the northern lights in Scandinavia
Visit Stonehenge on a pagan holiday
Walk the width of England following Hadrian’s wall.

Africa

Do that forced perspective picture of me kissing the sphinx in Egypt
Take a picture of the big 5 in Africa
Feels the drops of Victoria Fall on my face

Other Places

See the heads at Easter Island
Go back to all my favorite places in New Zealand

Personal Goal

Pay off my student loan
Speak in a national conference
Give a TED talk
Visit all 7 continents (4/7 complete)
Have $100,000 invested
Donate $100,000
Win a Jimei badminton tournament
Win a Xiamen badminton tournament
Win an international badminton tournament

Business Goals

Make video series for blog
Sell a book to a mainstream publisher
Become a NYT bestselling writer
Make a living off writing
Be interviewed for local magazine
Be interviewed for national magazine
Be interviewed for a national radio show
Be interviewed for a TV show
Write for a major website

I should mention that I’ve already done a lot of traveling in my life. I’ve seen Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, eaten strudel in Germany, walked the halls of Mont St Michel, and gazed upon the faces in Mt Rushmore and nearby crazy horse. Got sea sick while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. picked apples in New Zealand, had a monkey eat bananas from my hand in Indonesia, and played with my BFF at Disney Hong Kong. So maybe some of the more typical bucket list items might appear to be missing, but truth is, I’ve done a lot already.

Also, I’m not a daredevil. It’s not that I’m scared, but actually really have no interest bungee jumping or jumping out of a plane or doing any of those adrenaline type things. Not my jam.

Any other suggestions you have for me? I know this list is far from complete, and I hope to do not only all of them, but many more as well. Let me know.

And if you want to make an epic quest of awesomeness for yourself, I think you should. We all need to be reminded of how many cool things there are in the world for us to explore!