By Kenny Barto
If I were told today that I was going to die, I would be perfectly fine with it. I have peace of mind knowing that I’ve lived my life to the fullest and I’ve done everything in my power to enjoy everything I’ve done. If any case arose where I was presented with grim news, my last days would be filled with spontaneity instead of worrying about crossing things off of a list. Now how many of you can say that?
This mindset comes largely in part from my late grandfather, who was a hardworking father of four. Growing up in Quebec, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces before he moved to Connecticut where he started a family. He spent most of his working life as a mason and eventually retired to Florida after he earned a nice pension. One day during the early days of his retirement, he decided that he wanted to visit all fifty states, which he did and was something that I admired him for. Hearing him talking about the sheer beauty of Alaska and having seen the polaroids of the Sequoia National Park in California was captivating. The best part is, he decided to do all of this on a whim, without much of a plan involved, which is exactly how I’ve done some of the most enjoyable things in my life.
When it comes down to it, I simply can not grasp the entire idea of creating a bucket list. I went to see the guys from MTV’s The Buried Life to attempt to understand it. Although I respect these guys a lot for going out and helping people accomplish goals with some simple encouragement, I still don’t think that living a portion of your life off of a list is really a good thing. Look at it this way: You make a grocery list, you have a list of homework assignments and then now you make a list about things you want to accomplish before you die?
A buddhist quote says “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” It’s not cryptic, nor is it complicated. Yet, it’s a mindset like this that helps keep a clear mind, which goes a long way for the average college student.
To be clear, I’m not a hater. I respect people’s right to do what they want, and I respect people even more who can go out and do crazy stuff to make themselves better people. But, I almost have this feeling that a lot of people make these lists and never follow up on them, which is just sad when it comes down to it. The reason these people don’t follow through is pretty simple; their goal is always just out of their reach, and since no one expects to die, they always put things off.
Now, the expression “living life in the moment” doesn’t necessarily mean that if you have a good idea you do it that very second. For me, I tend to have good ideas every now and then, and some of them take planning. But, I almost always take things one at a time and never turn down an opportunity to do something spontaneous.
Life throws you a lot of curve balls. Some of which can absolutely destroy some of the things on bucket lists. Deciding how to live your life is your choice, and I won’t argue whether you’re right or you’re wrong. But, if you look at how simple things are when you don’t have a list, major achievements are more powerful and feel so much better in the long run.