Happy Finals Week, Cyclones.

We’re almost done and we can rest. You know what I am doing? Making a Winter Break bucket list. Not a to-do list because that is stressful and the same thing I always do. But a bucket list of what I can do to make myself happy over the break.

So, put together a bucket list! Look forward to having time to participate in your hobbies again, and look forward to having time to lay around and do nothing and not have to feel lazy for doing so.

Now, writing this list may be more difficult than you think. How often do we really sit and think about what makes us happy? We’re on a floating rock and we live our lives focused on what will let us survive rather than what will let us be happy.

Here is the start of my list. Feel free to steal the ideas, or maybe it will spark your own ideas.

• Write a book. Okay, this sounds like a huge project. Really, I just need to piece together a book. I have plenty of content. I just need to organize and put it in a pile and BAM! Sage wrote a book. Will it ever see the light of day? To be determined. But at least I’ll be able to say, “I finally wrote a book.”
• Road trip to a new town with my best friend! While wearing face coverings in public and maintaining social distancing because I’m terrified of getting sick. We’ll see a cute new town and stay in a hotel and maybe drive through snow. It will be a unique experience where we listen to good music and scream about the stories we tell each other.
• Work. This is funny, I know. Why would I have work on my bucket list? But I may have a job set up where I can go in every day and talk to people and be active and make money. It’ll be great.
• Be successful in my own world of Minecraft. I’ve been playing Minecraft with my roommate (hi Logan) and we have a whole world together with a beautiful house, productive farms and my wonderfully stupid animals. Logan has taught me well, so now I’m determined to survive in my own world. Wish me luck.

See? I have things to look forward to. It will be fulfilling to accomplish any of these. And I don’t have to feel overwhelmingly behind if I don’t cross any of these off the list. Because it is a bucket list, an “I would love to do this” list, not a “have to do this or I’m behind” list.

Please write your own list, or type it or just think it up in your mind. We’re on a floating rock. Anything can happen. We can focus on what will let us be happy, what will make us feel more whole rather than made up of bits and pieces. You’re allowed to focus on yourself.

Have a good break. Feel free to send me what is on your Winter Break bucket list. I’d love to hear it. Email me at [email protected] or reach me on Twitter @heysagesmith.