Senior Meghan O'Sullivan smiles and checks riding a tractor off her bucket list.
Courtesy Photo

It can be a scary thing to enter your senior year, or even your final semester of college. The real world is out there waiting and not many of us really know what we want to do yet. Even the lucky few who do have plans in place are still terrified, but excited for what the future has to bring.

A trend that seems to be taking shape among Castleton’s senior class this year is the creation of “graduation bucket lists.” These lists include everything seniors want to accomplish before they graduate in either December or May. While some accomplishments may be serious, most of the items on the lists are silly and fun. Some seniors might feel that college is the last time where doing anything silly just for the heck of it could be considered acceptable.

Meghan O’Sullivan, a senior from New York, says that bucket lists are good to keep goals from getting passed by or falling through the cracks.

“Having a list makes it real,” she said.

O’Sullivan added that she personally wants to see a moose before she graduates from Castleton. To date, she has already crossed some items off her list, including riding on a tractor and hiking Birdseye Mountain. She also believes a bucket list should include both individual and group goals.

“Do things you want to accomplish with your friends, but also do things you want to accomplish on your own,” she said.

Sarah Bergstrom, a senior from Connecticut, has an actual list typed on her computer as her senior year bucket list. Some items on the list include going to Canada and camping outside in the great outdoors of Vermont.

“I waited too long to realize that I was in such a cool place. Every one kind of puts Castleton down sometimes when actually we are in a really cool place full of opportunities,” she said. “I want to experience these things while I have the chance and while I’m here, because once I graduate I probably won’t be back for a while.”

Fellow senior Josh Budzinski, originally from New Jersey, has more extreme items on his agenda.

“It gives you personal goals that aren’t school related and it can break up monotony of the everyday,” he said.

Budzinski said he plans to visit as many breweries in Vermont as possible, go skydiving, and hike more places in Vermont to complete items on his bucket list before graduation.

Cameron Maurer, from Essex, Vt. and a senior graduating this semester, said he too thinks that bucket lists are a good idea.

“Setting goals for yourself, even if they are crazy and far fetched, is good and if you achieve them then you feel accomplished,” he said.

One item on the bucket list of this reporter was to write an article for The Spartan. I’ve wanted to since I was a freshman and here it is!

The soon-to-be-departing seniors had a few words of advice to the underclassmen.

“Don’t wait until your senior year to get out and explore the area. There is a lot of potential in our backyard,” Budzinski said.

Bergstrom mirrored Budzinski’s suggestion to enjoy being a Spartan in more than just their senior year.

“Even as underclassmen, the countdown to graduation has already begun and it’s bittersweet,” she said.