The sun sets before 5 pm, the windchill pulls the temperature subzero, and that leftover layer of snow from last week’s late afternoon flurry finally hardened into a very slippery layer of ice that just caused your car to skid wildly while backing out of the driveway. It’s finally here everyone—the dead of winter.

Though in the past this time of year was met with resentment and resignation, so far, this new season has elicited a different kind of response. Because after waiting 12 years for my life to finally begin (kidding!!) I am proud to announce that second semester senior year has arrived. Anyone who knows me knows that I am such a dreamer, but not in a whimsical, head in the clouds, creative savant sort of way. No no, it’s much more along the lines of I-set-my-expectations-way-too-high-and-always-get-dissapointed. As much of a realist I am for practical matters, I genuinely believe that my grasp on reality is thin, and emboldened by senior rhetoric, rapidly slipping. So much so that I’ve created a bucket list (not in the span of days though, it’s actually been a work in progress for a few years now). Already, the type of people to make bucket lists are the kind to have enough things to put on them. And if you have that many things to put on them you probably haven’t done much with your time in high school. And if you weren’t much of an experience person then, who’s to say you are actually going to do those things now. Or at least that’s what my mom tells me when I tell her I want to try illicit substances. Kidding! Ok, for real this time.

For better or for worse, I’ve acquired a bucket list from my past selves, riddled with all the things I wish I did (and probably did in some alternate universe) and now would like to do. It’s even written on a “to-do” sticky pad so I guess I deserve some bonus points for that? Anyways, this blog is for me to share them, which is kind of dumb since research shows announcing your goals makes you less likely to achieve them? But I figure I’m probably the exception. In no particular order:

• Cannonball into the Century Farms pond
  • Actually looking for people to do this one with me so this is an open call to hmu
• Camp out in my backyard (after putting up the tent myself)
• Bake a cake with more than one tier from scratch and decorate it prettily
• Go skydiving
  • Technically you have to be 18 in Illinois to do this so ig it’s not my fault that I haven’t ticked it off yet
• Go bungee jumping
• Participate in a (fake) Survivor competition
  • Heard about it from this kid who knew this kid who lives in the house next to Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress’s house in Oak Park and I’ve been intrigued ever since … too bad I’m going to India when it’s supposed to happen 🙁
• Take Amtrack’s Pacific Surfliner
• Take a cross-country roadtrip in an RV
• Run a marathon (though I’ll settle for a half, or realistically, even a 5K under 30 minutes)
• Participate in a 24 hour dance marathon
• Ditch a full day of school (w/o getting called out)
• Actually post on vsco
  • Mostly so I can find a college roommate…
• Burn all my notebooks in a bonfire
  • Except this’ll never happen since my parents have been making me save all of my school stuff for my younger brother since 4th grade
• Go ice skating on a random frozen lake (commercialized ones don’t count)
• Go paragliding
• Try a zero gravity chamber
  • Hella expensive tho so support me on gofundme
• Try cryotherapy
• Buy something from an estate sale
• Put my head through the sunroof while someone speeds down Ogden at night
  • Have participated in this many a times but alas, have always been the driver
• Successfully do a donut in a parking lot
• Climb the roof of the school
• Try shrooms in a foreign country
  • So maybe not for second semester senior year of high school but no one said anything about college!
• Learn how to do a handstand
• Complete Colonial Cafe’s Kitchen Sink challenge by myself
• Learn how to play poker
• Call in for advice on a radio talk show
  • I gave advice once last summer but I suppose it was subpar or something cuz they didn’t even air my segment! How rude!
• Go cliff jumping
• Wear leather pants to school
• Binge watch the entire Harry Potter series
• Host a red flags party
  • FYI red flags are the new white lies
• Pull an all-nighter
• Go paintballing
• Go to a drive-in movie
• Climb a tree (minimum height of 10 feet)
• Do the Sonic Challenge on a late arrival day
  • Sorry in advance Trow!
• Bury a time capsule somewhere in Naperville

If you’re another hopeless romantic dreaming about second semester senior year drop your top to-do items too, because who are we kidding, you probably have a bucket list to rival mine. And if you’re not but still happen to have a bucket list, drop your recs too. Beggars can’t be choosers.