Bucket List #1

My grandfather has always told me, when my brother and I were younger, to live life to the fullest, never be older than you are and to seek out things that make you happy. I have decided that after 482 months of living to ACTUALLY listen. Before "God" takes me, I plan to make a bucket list, so that forever long I live, my wife, my daughters, my grandchildren/great-grandchildren (I hope I can live as long as my grandfather), my friends and students know that I left happy, just as happy as the day my mother and father were when I was born.

Bucket List Item 1---GROW A BEARD, NOT A NECK BEARD OR GOATEE!!!!

So around 13, I discovered that my neck had three magnificient threads of hair. Incredibly excited, I posed in front of my grandparents mirror wondering, "Should I shave it? Should I leave it alone?" My brother Mitchell, unimpressed by my recent foray into puberty snickered and said, "What am I looking at? The three pieces of hair on your neck, look out!!!" (Mind you this is not a Billy Gibbons/Dusty Hill ZZ Top beard) My grandmother walks into the bathroom and sternly says, "What are you doing with the shaving cream on your face?" I explained to my grandmother that I was planning to boldly go where no other Levine grandson (I am the oldest of the four) would go and that was to shave. "Shave that? Adam, you know this shaving is not a one-time thing. The hair will grow thicker and you'll need to shave more. Have grandpa settle it."

My grandfather walks in and naturally whenever Mitchell and I were about to do something ridiculous, my grandfather's comment was, "Betty, I'll handle it." He was two seconds late. Throwing the door open, he says, "You know wherever you shave first, that part of your face will have the thickest beard."

Thus the birth of neck beard. I did get a rainforest under my lip at 15 and by 17 I had the goatee. Had I listened to my grandfather, I would have had grown a beard in college, my twenties or my thirties. Now at 40, I started growing a beard, to my wife's chagrin but decided to buy a ten-dollar beard trimmer from Rite-Aid. I am two weeks in but once full, I plan to take a picture and then shave it off for then I will be confident that the neck beard will be a thing of the past.