Bucket Lists

I subscribed to the New York Times because I believe that a big part of being an adult is staying informed about the world we live in. I read the news every day for a few months, then stopped when I realized that reading about the ways in which our world is divided and falling apart makes me sad and that I never actually felt more informed about the important information in the world around me. I feel like months of bad news has made me a more negative and pessimistic person on a subconscious level. The headlines are tragedies, and if you really dig for some good news you end up finding formal complaints or fashion trends that you should already have been following.

A few weeks ago, I opened up the NYT and found what I think might be my favorite article ever published. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve read a story that focuses on the people who have been waking up every morning for years, doing what they care about, and in the process making the world a better place. It’s more than just a scavenger hunt, because many of the people that hunt for these orbs have spent years searching before finally finding one. That’s years of outdoor adventures where people are paying close attention to the nature all around them, which is really cool. We can’t make the world a better place if we don’t see the beauty in it.

I’ve been biking on Block Island before, but I would like to spend some more time there wandering along the trails, taking the time to really enjoy it with the thought in the back of my head that just maybe I will be one of the lucky people to find an orb that in itself has no meaning other than the one we assign to it. Even just spending time on a nice island and observing the world around me sounds nice, which brings me to some of the other seemingly meaningless goals in my life.

For years I’ve dreamed of hiking to the top of the 48 peaks in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Some people would call it peak bagging, but I just see it as 48 mini adventures that I look forward to, that I would be able to look back on for the rest of my life. I’ve also wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail for a long time. It would be crazy, and I worry that I will never find the time to do it, but realize that if I want to do it I will have to make–not find–the time for it. Spending that much time outside sounds surreal and I know that it will come with its own set of challenges. The GR-11 has been a dream of mine ever since I discovered it while hiking in Catalunya. Walking along a mountain range connecting one ocean to another would be pretty awesome. And Antarctica has been on my mind ever since I read Endurance so many years ago. The thought of walking on an entire continent of wilderness is incredible.

My bucket list is getting long, so for now I’m focusing on enjoying the things I’m doing right now, like finishing a degree in Computer Science and learning as much as I can about glaciers, math, algorithms, and computers. I feel like for the first time in a long time I’m really starting to head in the right direction, even thought I’m still not crystal clear on which direction that is.