If you only had one month to live, what would you do before your time expired? What would you do today if there was no tomorrow?
A pair of Temple Christian graduates hope to show you on their new series of YouTube videos, “Bucket List Boys.”
“You only have one life,” said Elisha Shannon, 24. “You want to really spend it living to the fullest, exactly how you want.”
They quit their jobs and school and ended up in Dayton with a cameraman and editor friend. They started dreaming about everything they’d ever wanted to do, found a way to do it and filming themselves. They gave themselves one month.
“It’s a common notion we must be a bunch of privileged middle class white guys, that we’re just irresponsible,” said Justin Koehler, 21. “The fact is we’re broke. Elisha and I have a combined $250 to our name. It might be irresponsible; it might be really millennial of us. We’re really pulling out all the stops.”
For these two thrill-seekers, that means walking away from an explosion in the background. It means jumping into the cage for a mixed martial arts fight. It means greasing up for a bodybuilding competition. It means hopping onto a bull to see how long you can stay atop it.
They have a cameraman following them and a few other helpers to show people the thrill of their experiences. They tried eight different “bucket list” items between Oct. 4 and Nov. 4, each costing $20 or less.
Most of all, it meant putting fear behind them, the fears we all struggle with in life.
Shannon quit a good-paying job with Apple that left him unhappy but well-compensated. Koehler quit school at Rhodes State just two quarters shy of a degree and left behind jobs at Beer Barrel and FAST as an athletic trainer.
They started trying to win a Red Bull competition, backpacking across Europe and trying unusual things, such as cliff-diving in Ireland. They lost that bid and decided to still pursue their dream.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Shannon said. “I decided to be here, rather than be stuck in the same position, wake up at 40 years old and ask, ‘How did I get here?’”
One of their most heart-stopping videos online so far shows the two of them, wearing suits, walking away from an explosion. In another one, Shannon proposed to his longtime girlfriend.
“To our surprise, people have been extremely helpful in pointing us in the right direction for our items,” Koehler said.
In the finale of the video series, the duo will challenge viewers to come up with their own “bucket list” items. They want to go along with people as they try their list items, filming them.
“We want to encourage other people to just do it,” Shannon said. “Worry about how it affects you after you do it. If you want to do something, just do it, and figure it out later.”
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