What if your bucket list came to an end?
Creating a bucket list and checking off its items has always been a romanticized perspective on living life to the fullest. Movies, social media, and reels have continually tempted everyone, prompting second thoughts about their own lives. They might even make us add more items to our list. Although the list might be longer and it will be difficult to achieve, what if we checked all the items on the bucket list? Will we be happy and content? Will we be like, “Yeah, I can die now without regrets?”
The idea of a bucket list was popularized after the movie “The Bucket List”, inspiring countless people to create their own lists of aspirations. During my college years, my peers and I had extensive bucket lists, with typical items such as travelling the world, skydiving, paragliding, etc. And honestly, I still like the idea of having a list and the sheer joy of crossing each item. However, there are some realities which we need to consider with the idea of crossing items on the bucket list, living life to the fullest, and dying without any regrets.
We often borrow items from others and add them to our list.
Initially, we may start a list by adding items based on personal reasons such as watching a movie, reading a book, or hearing stories from others. However, nowadays, social media and influencers can sway our choices and lead us to follow their stories instead. The way they present the story behind a bucket list item, their narration of their experience, or their passionate explanation for something, may trick us into believing that we share the same sentiments. Unknowingly, we adopt their story and add it to our list. There is nothing wrong with seeking inspiration and trying new things. But the problem is adapting their interpretation of the story because what we need or want might be different things than that.
We can cross all the stuff on our list and still cannot enjoy our life to the fullest
The main reason for this is that most of the items on the bucket list might involve heart-pounding, adrenaline-rushing experiences — like skydiving or camping in the wilderness. While these activities can be thrilling, their excitement may not last. Real happiness often arises from finding joy in everyday moments and being content with our life. Although it is cool to be an adrenaline junkie or have wanderlust, without contentment and an emotionally rich life, we might miss out on so much.
Another reason is that sometimes we do things merely for the sake of doing them. We feel the need to visit n number of places and cross umpteen items from our list in a very short period. Consequently, we may find ourselves conforming to others’ expectations and deceiving ourselves into believing we’ve truly enjoyed these experiences. Therefore, when we encounter someone who passionately explains something we’ve already crossed off but didn’t genuinely relish, it can leave us feeling unfulfilled. Furthermore, not everything can go perfectly or be Instagram-worthy. Sometimes, we must be open to taking detours from our “perfect planning,” which can lead to potentially enriching stories in our lives, even if they don’t appear aesthetically pleasing. We might become so engrossed in certain moments that we forget to capture them in photographs. Alternatively, some experiences are deeply personal and special, and we prefer to keep them to ourselves.
Well, now the real question is what if we are accepting all the realities but still end up crossing everything on the bucket list?
The answer is simple. Grow your list :) Rather than borrowing from someone or blindly following social media, immerse ourselves in things that we have and interact with people around us. See, listen and read as much as stories and facts which give us new perspectives and understanding of what we exactly need. These can offer some slow and content ways of adding and crossing the items on the list. It might not be perfect and it might not have a proper beginning or ending, but will be real and will add to our nice genuine stories to share over tea with our loved ones or maybe some that are so beautiful that we won’t even want to share them with anyone.
