Wingshun Pang, Staff Writer
Featured image courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr
It’s no secret, this generation is more obsessed with the “bucket list” than any other era in history.
Previously, there were wars to be fought and famines to be survived. Who had time for self-actualization lists? People were too busy eking out a living farming, toiling in factories, or raising a family even before reaching today’s legal drinking age to worry about YOLO.
But without a doubt, sitting down to write out your life goals and dreams is more important now than ever. I see too many of my fellow students content with floundering, wasting time and student loans by taking classes and programs that they hope will show them the light, preferably sometime before graduation.
We become paralyzed under the big dreaded question, “what do I want to do?” To fight back against this growing apathy and aimlessness of our modern age, we need to stop. Slow down. Listen.
Those little voices in your head that flit through your mind when you’re in the shower, washing dishes, and doing laundry? Those are your wishes. Catch them before they vanish into the mist, or before they die a slow death, locked away in the basement of your brain because you’re afraid to examine them under the light.
Use a pencil, a keyboard, or even your favourite gel pen from grade nine. The medium doesn’t really matter, because once you can see your dreams clearly before you, they become much more tangible.
Write out everything that you think you can do, that you hope you can do, that you will do and observe the patterns of where your true interests lie. You should begin to see a personal blueprint forming that you can use to guide yourself, like a compass through the uncharted waters of our existence.
And through the process, you will start to believe you can actually do those things you’ve dreamed of. Believing in the possibility of an accomplishment is your first step, like wetting your toes before the plunge.
Most importantly, on the days you find yourself asking, “what’s the point?” the why will be right there at your back to gently push and poke you into action.
So what is it that you want from this life, before you kick the bucket? To rediscover what fans the flames of imagination in your heart and to act on it? Or to become an old person, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?
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