As a senior, one of the many questions people ask, besides the ever-more-enjoyable "What are you doing after you graduate?" and "When are you getting married?" is "Did you do everything you wanted to do?"
The bucket list for an Auburn student could go on and on: roll Toomer's, go to the top of the Samford clock tower, cheer at the Iron Bowl, take a picture with Aubie, pull an all-nighter in RBD.
On top of the Auburn bucket list, the Internet also holds a vast number of lists of things I should have accomplished in every section of my life. From "20 Things to do in Your 20's" to "10 Things you HAVE to do as a Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior," to the more controversial "20 Things to do Instead of Getting Married," the lists of things I'm supposed to be doing to enjoy my time in college and life in general has gotten to be quite long.
But why do I need to follow the ever-growing lists?
I'll admit that I've never been hiking in Chewacla. I've never been to the picture-perfect sunflower and pumpkin patches everyone has posed in. This year will be the first (and last) time I attend Rodeo as an Auburn student.
On a larger scale, I've never done many things the Internet list-makers would have me believe every typical college student or twenties-aged person needs to.
I haven't studied abroad. I haven't visited New York, nor do I have any desire to live there for an extended period of time. I haven't casually dated many people, and the thought of dating someone "totally wrong for me" just to do it sounds, quite frankly, incredibly stupid.
Does not doing these things mean I'm not happy with the things I have done and how I've spent the last 21 years of my life?
I don't think so.
If you have done these things and enjoyed them, that's wonderful.
But I'm tired of people thinking everyone needs to have the same experiences. What one person finds exciting and fun may be pure torture to another.
And if we're all following the same lists, if we're all convinced the way to figure out who we're supposed to be and how to have a good time is to travel to the same places and make the same mistakes and see the world the same way, how are we ever going to function when someone's not telling us what to do? Or what are we going to do when we realize we don't like the experiences we've had?
I think I would rather have a well-lived life than a checked-off list.
So, no, maybe I haven't done everything I've wanted to do. But I have done many things I wanted to do, without thinking of whether I was checking them off a list or not.
I think we could all do a little less list reading and a little more living.
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