#75 See Sydney
So far I’ve shared stories from my past, stories that have resulted from my pursuit of the completing of my bucket list. Well, this week is a little different.
Instead of looking back this week, we’re going to look forward. You see, No. 75 and this story will happen in the future.
“What? Austin, have you finally run out of stories to tell?” Believe me, there are plenty more to come, but this time I’ll tell you how my bucket list affected my decision-making and just how much having a list can affect your life.
It begins with my major of War and Peace. For this major, I am required to travel abroad. Because of my duties elsewhere, the most opportune time to travel abroad is this upcoming summer. And with that in mind, I rushed to my adviser Laura Schaeffer.
I have to say, we exhausted all of our combined resources and came up with only two possible candidates — Ireland or Scotland. The following weekend, I went home and weighed the pros and cons and decided Ireland.
After coming back with the perfect program, fate seemed to push me in another direction. With my heart set on Ireland, I found that I didn’t meet the requirements for it or for my backup, Scotland.
In a panic, I scurried up to the good people at the Ohio University Education Abroad center. The first day, we were unsuccessful in our search for any program that met my requirements. My requirements, known only to myself at the time, were a location off my bucket list. That is, until the second day I went to the center.
The adviser helping me, Bethany Scott, came across my digital copy of my bucket list on my hard drive.
Then came the inevitable explanation of the things I want to do before I kick the bucket, and she had involuntarily volunteered to have herself mentioned in my next article.
What I took most delight in, was that I had finally inspired someone to make their own bucket list.
After several distressed e-mails to my adviser, Bethany and I found something: an eight-week-long custom date internship in Australia that fit OU’s quarter system. It met OU’s requirements, but did it match mine? It did, perfectly. I have four items on my list that can only be completed in Australia with No. 75 among them — see the jewel that is Sydney.
With help from one of my closest advisers, Mr. Mitchem, I’m on the verge of completing college requirements and lifelong dreams this summer.
This is the time I want to reach out to anyone reading these articles; you never know where your life will take you. That’s the beauty of a bucket list. You never know what you’ll have to do in life, so why can’t what you have to do match what you want to do?
You would be surprised; sometimes it does.
Until next time, you stay classy Athens.
Austin Wyant is a freshman studying international studies and a columnist for The Post. Tell him your summer plans at aw149110@ohiou.edu.
