The week before Orientation Weekend 2016, I participated in Reality Camp, a service immersion experience that provides incoming freshmen with the opportunity to engage with service organizations throughout Spokane. The camp was also an immersion experience in my new Gonzaga community: I quickly learned the ways of the Zags, wearing my “Chaco tan” proudly and awkwardly puppeting the upperclassmen as they taught us Zombie nation.
At the end of the week, our leaders gave us a bucket list of people to meet, foods to eat, things to do, fears to overcome, and feats to accomplish during our next four years at Gonzaga. Some are definitely easier than others, requiring no more than an anticipatory stroll from Coughlin to the Subco Cookie Night. The ones that inspire us to engage with and listen to others, however, are the ones that I appreciate the most, and will strive to check off at some point during my Gonzaga experience. I hope you can find some things on here that you want to check off your Gonzaga Bucket List.
The Gonzaga Bucket List:
(Courtesy of Reality Camp Leaders 2016, plus some that I’ve added!)
ACTIVITIES:
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Basketball games (men’s and women’s!)
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Tent City
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Play Sardines in College Hall
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Join a CCASL Program
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Attend Story Slam
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Eat at Jesuit House
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Go to Coffee House
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Participate in Intramurals
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Cookie Night at Subco
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Go to a G.U.T.S. Show
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Host a Gel Baby
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Sign up for Mission Possible or Justice in January
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Go on a GU Outdoors Adventure
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Go to a GU Hockey Game
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Do Zag Volunteer Corps
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Feed the Garbage Goat
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Run Bloomsday
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Climb at Wild Walls
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Explore Spokane’s art
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Attend a GUSR Play
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Order and finish a Colossal pizza from Pizza Pipeline
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Create an online petition that calls for Bulldog Bucks to function as a national form of currency (ASAP, we are fighting a losing battle… Sonic just stopped accepting Bulldog Bucks)
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Movie night in one of the classrooms in College Hall
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Take a dance class (or really, any art form/skill in which you are a complete beginner!)
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Shamelessly sing karaoke at Late Night Cog
PEOPLE:
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Take a selfie with Thayne
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Get on a first-name basis with at least one COG employee
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Ask someone out on a coffee date
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Go on a “roomie date”
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Engage in conversation with a professor outside of class
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Have an unexpectedly awesome late-night conversation with someone you didn’t previously know well
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Remind people that you appreciate them (slip notes into backpacks, write little notes in your friend’s planner, etc…)
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Be able to say that you’re friends with a Jesuit priest by the time senior year rolls around
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Engage with the international student culture at GU
FOOD:
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Aloha Island Grill
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Atilano’s
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Atticus Coffee
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Bangkok Thai
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Boots Bakery (get the Pumpkin Waffles!)
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Brainfreeze
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Chaps
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Clinckerdagger*
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Clover*
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Donut Parade
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Europa
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Flying Goat
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Fro-Yo Earth
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Ginger Asian Bistro
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Indaba Coffee
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Kim’s Korean
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Luigi’s
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Luna*
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Madeline’s
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Rockwood Bakery
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Satay Bistro
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The Scoop
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The Slice
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The Steamplant*
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Sonic’s Happy Hour
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Soulful Soups
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Steelhead
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Sushi.com
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Sweet Frosting
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Ultimate Bagel
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Veracci Pizza
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Try to recreate one of the meals/foods you experience at these places using your dorm room microwave and ingredients from Cash & Carry (and possibly smuggled from the COG)
*Go with your parents: $$$ and the world does not run on Bulldog Bucks (YET – see above in “Activities”!)
Yes, most would agree that the “point” of college is to graduate and apply the skills we have learned to our future career paths – but these paths are certainly not linear.
In a way, a bucket list (however silly or trivial some of the objectives may appear) is ultimately a way to hold ourselves accountable: not only for achieving the elusive “end goal” of education, but for embracing the experiences, relationships, and insights we develop along the path to graduation and beyond.
SO: print this list out, tape it to your door, wall, fridge, window, etc… and begin checking things off!