Around middle school, I reached the point in life when you begin to develop the sort of worldly awareness that comes only with traveling more. It was around this time that I realized I would never be able to visit all the places or do all the things I would want to do; I would never be able to see it all.
So, I made a bucket list of what I thought were the most important things I want to do before I die. It was a list of about 75-100 places, activities, and events written in the Notes app on my phone. I initially spent a lot of time brainstorming this list, scouring the internet for the coolest sounding activities and most beautiful places.
I soon became incredibly pressed to come up with the most exotic items to add to my list. For example, I had put down visiting all Seven Wonders of the World and traveling to every continent. But when I looked back on items such as these, I realized that I didn’t really have any significant interest in doing many of the things on the list. Lost in the infinite possibilities, places and people the world has to offer, I ended up adding things that had little meaning to me.
I thought that creating a bucket list would be inspirational, but as I looked at mine, all I noticed was how abstract the items were. It was a broad grouping of phrases such as “all the states” or “cliff jumping” that sounded nice on paper but had no personal significance to my goals and aspirations. My bucket list ended up being a stereotypical list of cool things people do in their life, rather than a personalized list that could guide and inspire me.
When all the great things I want to accomplish are put into a list of short phrases, it was also easy to get narrow-minded. I could plan for just accomplishing one item on the list but do so without taking the time to fully explore and appreciate it. Taking my goals off of a list allowed me to dream with more depth and detail.
Instead of my bucket list items being confined to a few words long, I gave myself the space to plan them out more elaborately. I’ve always been a big daydreamer, and taking some of these items off of the page and allowing them to develop in my head has given me so much more joy and inspiration.
Looking back on moments that I would put on a retrospective bucket list, many of them are not ones that I could have planned for. Rather than being defined by a certain landmark or place, they derive their significance from the emotions and people that surrounded me at the time, aspects you certainly cannot plan using a list. Instead of living for checking items off of a list, I think it is more fulfilling to live for these moments, the ones that you can never predict but somehow end up defining your life.