There are a thousand and one things a keen new first-year can do upon arrival at university. O week is a bright and dazzling display, classes are a flurry of activity, and making new friends a daunting task that can be quickly overcome with a few jokes and a big smile. But considering the long run of university, I have never really considered any sort of ‘bucket list’, and it is only recently that I discovered that almost every single one of my friends has at least some vague concept of all the bucket list experiences they want to have while at Uni. My degree is probably going to be about six years long at this rate. But looking on the bright side this means six years that I can cram full of exciting new opportunities, learning, and travel. So here’s the first attempt at a University bucket list!
So I’ve never really pulled an all-nighter. For the first two months of staying in the dorms we would stay up all night talking until 3 in the morning, but that’s still not quite an all-nighter is it? And not an all-nighter as in ‘I haven’t studied for this test, now I have to spend the next 12 hours cramming info into my brain’ type of all-nighter. A fun all-nighter, full of crazy fun adventures, pillow forts, partying and games. The most fun thing about being a uni student staying in the halls is that you have an unprecedented level of freedom. I remember one night, it was about 1 am and my flatmate wanted Maccas. So we just got up and went and sat in McDonald’s in the middle of the night and ate junk food. The first item on my bucket list is to pull an all-nighter, and have an absolute blast doing it.
Study abroad. There’s this program called 360 International at Auckland Uni that allows you to study abroad at different Universities around the world. I would love to spend a semester studying abroad somewhere, anywhere. I spent my year 13 on student exchange in Italy and it was the best experience of my life. Now, at university, studying abroad also comes with the freedom that you don’t have a host family who’s responsible for you, there’s no exchange organization threatening to send you home because you took a train to Venice for the day and forgot to tell them (oops).
Backpack Europe. This is a pretty big trip and is not just on my uni bucket list, but also on my life bucket list. There’s a lot of super-cheap options for flights and Eurail tickets if you are a student, and there’s a lot of amazing places in Europe that I want to explore. We have three/four weeks during inter semester break, and hopefully, during one of those breaks, I’ll pull myself together enough to get a ticket to Europe to go backpacking!
Get straight A’s for an entire semester. So for law, this is kind of already a must, but I haven’t done it yet, and It is definitely a goal for one semester in the next few years. It means a lot of hard work and study, no more sleeping in and missing lectures lol. Even though all our lectures are recorded it is still hard to learn off a lecture recording. Especially if your lecturer is errr… monotone when he talks.
I also want to write a letter to my older self. I have never done this before but my friend said she wrote one to herself in year 7 and then opened it when she came to uni. It sounds like a super interesting idea, and one day this winter I’m going to knuckle down and see what I can come up with!
Go to the pop-up globe as soon as it re-opens. I know that it’s shut down for the winter (I think) but hopefully they open up again at the end of this semester and I can go with some of my friends because I LOVE the pop-up globe. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a theater group who rebuilt Shakespeare’s globe theater and perform the most amazing plays. When I go with my friends we can only ever afford the $10 groundling tickets, but if you have money then you can pay for a bench, seat, or even the royal box!
Another thing that I want to add to my bucket list is to become involved in a club at Uni. Like the debating society or politics club or something. All of my older friends are part of these clubs and on executive committees and I think it’s such a cool thing to be a part of! Being super involved in a club is a lot of work, but the rewards and personal achievement would make it worth it.
So that’s my first attempt at a Uni bucket list. There are so many things you can do while studying your degree, it’s not all about academics! Being at uni gives you so much freedom, and I can’t wait to start ticking things off my Uni bucket list
🙂 – Beth