December Graduation
Southern Arkansas Honors College
Left to right: Stephanie Tabor, McKenzie Brown, Kayla Hawkins
Left to right: Blake Barber, Kofoworola Afolabi, Gillian Wells, David Gustafson
Opeyemi Miracle Daramola
The Honors College is proud to send off its latest class into the future. Congrats to all
I have several things I have always wanted to do. Some are more likely to happen than other, but these are the ones I want to do the most;
1. Creating my own successful video game, doesn’t need to be a smash hit, just recognized by at least a small niche group of people
2. Moving away from my home town of Texarkana
3. Make a career out of 3D modeling
4. Learn how to cook good
5. Learn how to play the piano
6. Get my own Keytar and learn how to play it
7. Start a Youtube Channel (doesn’t even have to be famous, just to have an outlet)
8. Get a home at Shreveport
9. Produce my own short film
10. Learn how to paint
For my bucket list, I don’t really have anything short-term because I see my life moving
too quickly to focus on the “Now.” In just 2 years I’ll graduate. In just 2 ½ years, I’ll be working
what I hope to be a fairly stable job. In about 3-5 years, I hope to be married, and all of these
hopefully combine to my happiness.
Getting good grades is something I always strived for in high school. I tried making as
high of grades as I possibly could to get into college, but now that I’m here, I realized that I still want to make good grades. Not just because of something like honors college, but because I
want to truly live to the best of my abilities, and doing that for me means to get A’s and B’s in
college.
My future job is something I fantasize a lot about. I hope to be making at least $70,000
when leaving college, and hopefully working my way up to the $100,000+ range. Making money
to me means that I have shown I can succeed in something and I put in a tremendous amount
of work, corresponding to my pay. I want to show myself I can do it, and the best measurement I can personally make for myself is the compensation I can get for the work I put in.
Marriage has always been something I’ve looked forward to. I want the love of my life to
show up one day dressed in all white and have that magical moment in front of our families. I
plan to wait until I am in a stable economic situation before doing it, but either way it pushes me to want to be great. Being great for yourself is one thing, but when you’re doing it for someone
else makes a major difference in my opinion.
Being happy is a hard thing to put on my bucket list because it’s not just a basic
happiness. I have happiness every day, but once my life has been put into motion, I have a
high-paying job, I have a wife, hopefully a kid, and I see myself as truly “Making it”, then I think I can finally say I am content and I will not just have momentary happiness, but I will be truly
happy.
At some point in my life, I want to go to graduate school. I’ve considered doing it right
after my undergraduate. I’ve also considered doing it as soon as I get my first job. But right now, I am most likely going to do it when I have been working for around 3 years. At that point,
adding a masters degree seems the most beneficial, and it doesn’t cut into my time as a new starter to the industry.
Overall, these are my goals. Going skydiving or having a fridge full of gatorade don’t
really appeal to me, but the constant thoughts on how to become the best me I can be for both
myself and my future family stand firm as the main, and only, things I can really say speak to me for a bucket list.
I have many things on my forever-growing bucket list, but here are some main ones:
Travel-
I want to continue to travel and visit as many places as possible. My main areas of interest are
Greece, Japan, Scotland, Egypt and Antarctica. However, I do not only want to see the world,
but leave a positive impact everywhere I go, whether this is through my art, service work or
connecting with the people living there.
Impact:
As I mentioned before, I want to leave a large positive mark before I pass on. I would be
content with my life knowing I made people's lives easier and happier, including my own. It
starts with small actions, such as giving a dollar or holding the door, but the goal is for it to
transform into larger ones, such as curing a disease or improving the realities of equality. I want to
be known and remembered for something good.
Feeling content/happy:
This last one may seem more like an ideology than a bucket list item, but for me it is something
to chase after and accomplish. True happiness comes with being content no matter your
circumstances. I aspire to get to this point, along with completing my dreams and goals. I will be
satisfied when they are completed, which is why my final bucket list item is to complete a bucket
list.
Graduate from SAU
● Get accepted into a Doctorate program
● Graduate with a Ph.D. in Chemistry
● Visit Europe
● Visit Japan
● Travel Elsewhere
● Move out of the US
● Build a Happy Family
● Go to a Pop Culture Convention
When many people think of bucket lists, they think of many extravagant activities or tasks that they want to complete before they die. When trying to craft my bucket-list, I find that I have many small tasks or goals, but I spend most of my time thinking about large goals and accomplishments that I was to achieve. Many people might see my goals as small or non-extravagant but to someone who grew up sheltered or under the circumstances that I did, these are very big things.
For starters, an item on my bucket-list is to graduate college, and I know that it may seem normal but I am a first generation college student. An even larger goal that I have is to obtain financially stability and be able to live comfortably; Many smaller goals go into that one goal such as obtaining a degree and finding a great job. Like many I want to get married and have children before I die, and give them everything in life that I did not have growing up.
I also have some activities that I would like to take part in before I die. I am scared of heights and terrified of getting on a plane, but eventually I want to get over my fear and try it. I would also like to make an appearance and debate about politics on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX. There are many skills that I would like to obtain before I die including learning how to skate, driving a stick-shift truck, becoming fluent in Spanish, and learning more about stocks.
Speak in Spanish (better) without second-guessing myself with pronunciation. I can read and understand what’s being said in writing and when spoken, but I’d love to be able to have an ongoing conversation in Spanish without fearing mispronunciation and making many mistakes.
Go on a Hawaii vacation with some friends. This seems like lots of fun.
I want to go to The Neighbourhood or a Tyler, the Creator concert. I’ve already been to a Harry Styles concert about a year ago– it was an unforgettable experience, I definitely want to go to more shows and get better seats. Now that I can have a job on campus and save money, I want to aim for the front row of my top 2 favorite artists.
Own a Camaro. Ever since I was like, 8, I’ve been in love with them. The Transformers movies are actually what made me love the car, to be honest. In the future, I plan to own one and have it custom-wrapped, and maybe have the transformers emblem in the same spot Bumblebee had his, just for the nostalgia.
Creating a bucket list is quite a difficult task for one such as myself. As someone who dislikes thinking about getting old, losing memory, eventually death, a bucket list seems like the exact thing to trigger anxiety for the next three weeks. Alas, I have to so I can pass, so I am going to center my list around things I can do long before I age out of the ability.
To begin, I would like to complete my family tree on both sides. For the Reynolds side, this is easy, as the records are very well kept. My mother’s side, however, is obscure and confusing. I think it’s important to comprehend where you originate from.
The second item on my list is to go sky diving. I am basically scared of everything, yet heights don’t scare me.
Third up on the list is to hold an Atlas moth. This one seems very out of place, I know, but to understand it you must understand me. I adore moths (favorite animal genus) and holding big moths is a dream of mine. I would have been an entomologist if it had paid more.
My fourth item is to go mining. Another strange one, but once again it relates heavily to a strange obsession of mine. I love rocks. Not in the ‘crystal energies’ type of way, but the geology type of way. It amazes me how the Earth can just create these gorgeous structures.
The final item on my list is quite possibly the most important one, but I would like to become an aunt. I don’t wish to have any kids of my own (if I change my mind I’d adopt instead), but I would love to spoil one of my sisters’ kids as the “cool aunt with the pool.”
Before I “kick the bucket,” I would like to do several things. Most of these things are not exactly “thrill-seeking” in a way that’s traditional. I have anxiety, so pretty much everything is thrill-seeking. Ha ha.
Cross country road trip
I want to travel across the country with close friends. I want to see new places and things and I want to experience it with people I care about; it would bring so many new memories and experiences.
Live big city life
My goal is to settle in a big city like Boston or Seattle, even if its just for a few years. I feel places like that just have something to offer other than what I’ve experienced in my hometown or college town.
Make something
I want to make something expressive of myself. While I don’t know exactly what, I want to have a project I can call my own and put into the world in some way, weather it be a painting, book, video game, or film I want to be able to put a piece of me or my ideas out there in a big way.
Find myself
I hope I can feel comfortable in my own skin one day. I think this will always be a work in progress, but self-growth is important to me. I want to do good on this earth and hopefully recognize myself as an individual I am proud of all around.
My bucket list is nothing special; I have a few things I want to accomplish, and I will do anything to strive for those goals.
I want to learn Italian on my own in order to eventually move to Italy with my betrothed. Together, we will be able to accomplish my dreams.
While there are an infinite number of things I would like to do in my life, for a bucket list I want it to be realistic. I want to be able to complete it one day and have something to look forward to.
Starting off I want to complete college and find a decent job, a basic one but still something decently hard to complete without effort. Having that stability will help me complete the other things on my list.
Next is to build a house, a big thing but it is something important to me. I guess going along with the boring adult stuff, marriage is also on the list. But so far that’s just basic things almost everyone wants.
One thing I really want to do is spend a night somewhere far out and just watch the stars. That’s my version of appreciating nature without having to go out into the woods or something.
Back to boring stuff, I would like to go beyond in my field and be a creative director. My forte is coming up with creative ideas so I would love to be the one who dictates the goal instead of the one who just executes someone else's ideas.
There probably more little trivial things I would like to do but these are the big ones. They would have the largest impact on my life and that is why they are here. I would rather achieve the things I want the most than something similar but not quite what would make me the happiest.
A bucket list, something I fondly remember thinking about often as a kid but now I barely know where to start. When I was little these lists were of course filled with ridiculous, imaginary goals. “Have a pet dragon” was always at the top and “live in a castle” wasn’t far behind, and if I’m being honest those are goals that will always stay on my list because don’t we all deserve to keep a little whimsy in our lives? Plus, who knows, maybe in the future scientists will “Jurassic Park” up some flying lizards; I think that’d be close enough for me.
Realistically though, I want to live far off in Montana, or in a big city to the East--maybe Florida. I know, those are two very different and far apart places but I’d like to keep my list a little flexible! Montana would suit me, with its beautiful mountain regions, but Florida is better located for the work I want to do.
I mean, you don’t really hear about games or movies being made in the Upper Midwest. Any sort of house would be good with me, so long as it can handle me and some cats because I definitely am taking some feline buddies with me where ever I go.
Aside from that I really would love to travel. Since I was young, I loved the idea of going to Europe and seeing the sites. Visiting the north--Denmark, Norway, Sweden--to explore those mountains and coasts before making my way down towards countries like France, Italy or over to Ireland. That’s where my family is from and it would be amazing to connect with the culture there. Overall, I just want to make my life enjoyable no matter what happens or where it takes me.
When I think about the things I want to complete in my life, it’s hard to condense it down to a short but achievable list. Ideally, I would want to accomplish things like curing cancer or ending world hunger, but those are not things that I can achieve realistically. Regardless, the things that are on my bucket list are very diverse.
My first goal is to get my M.D. Ph.D. in neurology. I want to come up with a new medical procedure or technique. I also want to get my MD to become a surgeon of some kind, but I haven’t decided yet. I have always been very interested in how the human brain works, so I’m considering neurosurgery.
I also want to travel to Italy and Greece. I love the cultures of Italy and Greece, so I have always wanted to explore there. I want to go sight-seeing and I also want to try all the different foods that these cultures can offer.
I also want to own a house of my own. I want to have a house with my future husband with two corgis. I don’t really have a specific house in mind, but I want something that I can call home. I don’t really plan on having kids, because I’m content with having dogs as my children.
There are a number of things I hope to accomplish before I die. These often seem like things far out of my reach - unattainable dreams that will never be made a reality. However, I know that if I work hard in life, I can be successful and do many things that make me happy. Though I have so many goals swirling around in my mind, I have never compiled them into a full “bucket list.” So today, I will give you an idea of what my bucket list would look like.
One goal of mine is to write a book. As a child, I fantasized about becoming an author. I loved reading and creating fantastical worlds of my own in my mind. Though I’m not as avid of a reader as I once was, I hope to be able to create captivating stories in the way my favorite authors do. To me, writing is an outlet. I feel like, if I really had the motivation, I could throw all my ideas into a short novel or children’s book.
Adding to that item, I would love to one day be published in a national news source. With my Mass Communication degree, I aim to enter the journalism field and be a newswriter. It would be amazing to see my name at the top of an article in TIME Magazine.
Another thing on my bucket list would be to travel to Greece. Greek culture is fascinating to me, and I enjoy learning about the country’s history. I would love to see the attractions that are so prominent in ancient stories and legends. The architecture is gorgeous, and walking through the cities would be like traveling to another world. I would also love to try all the food I can.
Even though I’ve always thought about writing a bucket list so that I could document my goals in life, I never got around to doing it. However, this is my opportunity to express to other people what I want to achieve in this very short span of life, and hopefully it will inspire others to rise to the occasion of accomplishing their own goals.
Weirdly enough, my most important goal is to throw myself into a completely new environment, whether it be a new country or city, and to meet as many diverse people as I can. For this to satisfy me, I would want to meet people with completely different viewpoints from each other, and this will help me have a greater understanding of cultures I currently have no clue about.
Along with this, getting to listen to a famous composer such as Hans Zimmer or Max Richter in person would be fantastic, especially if I had the chance to watch them practice. Witnessing a craft such as directing for such a significant figure would allow me to partake in talent that I could only dream of achieving.
A simple but important goal would also be to either run a marathon or compete in a high intensity competition. I’m not particularly in shape right now, but to have such determination and endurance to complete a marathon is astounding to me, and it is something that if I put my mind to it, I could absolutely get done.
To finish it off, being able to retire early due to smart financial decisions throughout my life and settling down in a town away from everything would be the penultimate goal of my life. Reaching a state of peace through my dedication towards learning and through work would fulfill all my aspirations.
For my entire life, I’ve been called a “dreamer” and told that I expect too many far-fetched things. To that, I say, “why not?” Is it not part of the human experience to dream? I suppose we all have different ideas of fulfilling lives, but I know mine includes fun experiences, living up to my full potential, and making a difference. My life is lived in the sense of checking off a never-ending bucket list I’ve started from consciousness to the present. There are fun, specific ones you’d expect such as swimming in Lake Tahoe, building a self-sustaining home, seeing any whale out in the ocean, and more, but these are minuscule compared to the major milestone ones.
I dream of finishing my bachelor’s with a high GPA, going to graduate school, one to be proud of, and passing with flying colors. Beyond this, I want a job with a good cause that I excel at and will be able to afford to help my future child or children in doing the same. I hope to raise children who will grow up to be leaders in positive change for future generations and use my passion for humankind and the planet to spread awareness, advocate, help push policies that make society better, or anything else that I can. I want to live in a place with a wondrous natural environment. I’ve always dreamed of living somewhere beautiful where I want to be outside whenever I can and makes me happy to exist in each day. Specifically, I want to be an environmental lawyer with a J.D. from a high-ranking school, living somewhere like Colorado. Who doesn’t like Colorado? By the end, I hope that through all these milestones, I will have a partner with whom I’ve shared mutual support and love.
My name Is Cole Roberts and I have a lot of things I want to experience or achieve. The first
thing, although not the most important, would be to skydive. Facing possible death provides a
greater gratitude for life. After skydiving, mundane stressors won't be able to compare. I predict I will love the exhilaration but gain a permanent appreciation for having my feet firmly planted on the ground.
I would love to plant a tree and take a picture each year of its growth. This collection of pictures
would serve to remind myself that consistent growth, no matter now small, will eventually carry me to the heights I strive to achieve.
I want to visit the tombs or memorials for some of my favorite historical figures and musicians,
as well as politicians and authors. Harriet Tubman, Malcolm McCormick, John Marshall and George Orwell are all on my list to visit. Great minds have shaped this nation as well as this
world. Taking time to remember and reflect on the accomplishments of these people is something I would love to do.
I want to learn slacklining, or tight rope walking. I have always admired the physical balance and
the mental poise required to balance and walk on such an unsteady object.
Another skill I want to achieve is to become fluent in Spanish. I can read and write a portion of
the language but I am wanting to carry out conversations with others entirely in Spanish.
Lastly, before I die. I want to spend a week in Bora Bora. I cannot think of a more beautiful
climate. The clear water and the white sand are the closest things I can imagine to Heaven on
Earth.
