The Would-Be Bucket List

I am now officially a graduate school applicant! Yes, that means one application down, two to go. A small accomplishment, but I feel it is worth celebrating. And celebrate we did...with ice cream and cookies.


James heard a horror story this week (and was thoughtful enough to share it with me, the applicant) about a young man who applied to his top graduate programs and was rejected from all three. After hearing the story, I turned to James with a horrified look on my face, and he quickly reassured me, "But I'm sure it won't happen to you!" Ha! Anything could happen, crazy kid. Just hopefully not that.


But it got me thinking: What if I don't get accepted to any of these schools?


At first, the thought was dreadful. I've been looking forward to grad school for months, even years, now. I finally know what I want to study and I feel passionate about it. This is a perfect, maybe the only perfect, time of life to go. We have absolutely no backup plan if I don't get accepted. None. Zip.


Is that really a bad thing, though?


Think...what would you do with an entire year of your life if you didn't have any plans? If it were me, I would make a year's bucket list. Mine would look something like this:

This year, I will:

*NEVER go to a place with temperatures below 70F

*Run a marathon

*Befriend someone who is lonely

*Spend a large chunk of the year at the beach of some Caribbean island

*Open a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant

*Take Latin dance lessons with James

*Discover a mushroom dish that I actually like

*Learn, really learn, Spanish

*NOT wear shoes any more than is absolutely necessary

*Buzz my hair. I've always wanted to do that!

Well, that reassures me that if I don't get accepted to grad school, I'll still have a stellar year next year. This blog post has been therapeutic for me.


And you know what? Some of these things are pretty worthy goals. They might make it to my real bucket list.


Just not the hair one...James would have a fit :)