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By: Jeanna Brown

You always hear the same vague answers about what people want out of life like, falling madly in-love, having kids, traveling the world and making lots of money while doing all three.  Who wouldn’t want that easy-breezy life?  The problem with goals like this are that there’s no clear map of how to go about doing it, you just hope the dice always rolls in your favor.  If you are relying on this approach, you may end up on your death-bed wondering, “how come I never made it to Fiji?”  The answer:  Develop a list that is more specific.  Doing this will help you obtain your goals without the procrastination and allow you to discover yourself in ways you may never have before.  Take the dice and roll with them to see where you end up, don’t sit on the sidelines and wait for things to happen.  Prepare your goals and believe that they will happen so that they can.

On MTV’s new show “The Buried Life,” four young men, tired of going through life with no clear destination, decide to make a list of 100 things they want to do before they die.  So they bought a bus and set out in hopes of conquering their list.  The list includes, among other things, to deliver a baby, make a toast at a stranger’s wedding, crash a Playboy Mansion party and ask out the girl of their dreams (who happens to be famous Megan Fox).  Although at times their list may breach extremes and even include awfully silly things, no matter the goal, reaching victory when accomplishing something you have set forth to do is incalculable.  Along their journey they also set out to help strangers carry out things they want to do; such as help a man find his son he hasn’t seen in 17 years and provide a low-income school with a new computer.  As a young college student myself, I think,  we hope that we have a clear destination in mind for ourselves and our futures.  The truth is that many of us have or are struggling to pick a major or have already switched majors two and three times.  Making a list, setting goals and working on achieving them can help you find yourself while exploring the many options at your disposal.

Fellow PVCC student Ashley Barsellotti, whose major is undecided and is also working on launching a modeling career for herself, wants to do things like help solve a murder, go sky diving in South America and see the Eiffel Tower.  Other students, like Travis LeCompte who is looking to be a doctor and majoring in pre-med, says he wants to live in Africa for a year, learn how to fly a jet, and, along with Colin Amann, a Psychology major, want to save a life.  Colin also dreams of learning to base-jump and freestyle (rap) against Eminem.  “The difference between school and life?  In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test.  In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson,” –Tom Bodett.  Take the time to let life teach you lessons and push yourself to set goals and this can be the key to your success.   

In the movie “The Bucket List,” actors Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson star as two men terminally ill with cancer who set off to achieve the things that they never got the chance to do, their “bucket List.” Seeing other people make these lists can ignite others to do it.  But do we actually do it?  Mostly, not.  Don’t wait until you’re on your death bed to begin making a list and exploring your inner-most desires.  It is possible to do things and go places you have always dreamed of.  Start thinking about what you want to conquer, where you want to venture.  Then worry about figuring out how to build realistic bridges for yourself to attain your ideas, but do it now.  Start working toward making your dreams less of a dream and more of a reality.

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