story by Isabel Shorter

For many, the renowned term “Bucket List” would be more accurately described as an “I Wish, But Let’s Be Honest, These Things Are Never Going to Happen” List. Everyone has their list of places they want to go, people they want to see and activities they want to experience, but the issue is that we all tend to look past these dreams of ours. It has been engrained into the back of our minds that the little amount of money we make a year or the time that we lack will hold us back from achieving or experiencing what we want. Thereby, that Bucket List, whose contents we know all too well, sits in the back of our mind while gradually becoming empty as our ambition fades. Life is too short to not do exactly what you want, and the time you waste pushing off your goals or desires can never be regained.

It is immensely important that we achieve our goals and reach our destinations before this ambition fades. Whether your Bucket List is a list of 30 countries you want to visit or just to graduate high school with a 4.0 GPA, you can achieve that goal as long as you don’t let time or money get in the way. I know it sounds cliche, but you are the only thing getting in the way. If you want to travel the world, get a decent paying job, put one check a month into savings and in 10 months you’ll have enough money to travel for a month straight. And there is no better time than right now to start saving. Think about it…this is probably the only time in our lives where we won’t be paying for a roof over our head, food on the table or any bills of the sort. What better time to get a job and start saving for things like college or a trip to another country? The time is NOW, and that’s why my Bucket List may look a little different.

My Bucket List isn’t just a list of where I want to go, it’s also a realistic list of how I’m going to get there. I’m a very strong believer that you will never actually achieve anything if you don’t write it down and plan how you’re going to do it. So, being the practical planner I am, I laid out a more planned Bucket List.

A Snippet from my “Bucket List”

What I want to achieve…

#1 – Travel to a different country for a month (after I have graduated college). I want to experience a totally different lifestyle than what I’m used to for at least a month. The first month I would want to live in Greece. Then I would come home for a few months, then live in London, and so on until I feel like I’ve visited all the places I desire.

How I’m going to achieve this…

1. During my next two years of high school I will work at an average paying job where I will make about three to four checks a month, each of about $180. I will deposit one of these checks each month into my college fund, and half of one check each month into my travel savings account. The remaining money will be used to help pay for high school and for spending cautiously. At this rate, in just two years I will have saved $4,320 to help pay for college and $2,160 for travel.
2. After college, assuming that I will not be having job offers thrown at my face so soon, I would begin traveling for a month to Greece to experience things while I’m still young and not yet settled. Roughly calculated, for a month of living in Greece, it would cost $150 for transportation, $250 for food, $400 for entertainment, $250 for accommodation and $100 for supplies, which adds up to the grand total of $1,150. With a potential budget of $2,160, I could afford this.

If my highly constructed snippet of my bucket list didn’t already show you, it is possible to do things that may seem impossible due to lack of income or time, but as long as you believe that you really will do it one day, then you can. If you want to go to Australia, Denmark or Greece, don’t let money be the thing that holds you back. No one said you need to make six figures a year to travel the world. It sounds cliche, but you can do anything you set your mind to as long as you make that “Bucket List” into a “To-Do List.”