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.
