Between episodes of ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘Teen Mom’, we know that MTV is not known for airing the most tasteful shows (or much music, for that matter).  One day though, I happened upon a show called ‘The Buried Life’, and it had me questioning my life in the best way possible. For those of you still out of the loop, ‘The Buried Life’ is a reality show about four guys who decided they wanted to take the road less traveled and complete their bucket list.  From participating in a Krump competition, to making a toast at a stranger’s wedding, to playing basketball with the president, these guys leave nothing off their list.  And for each thing the check off on their list, they help someone else check off on theirs.  They’ve reuniting father and son, raised money to buy a poor school a computer, and a bunch of other thing. The best part? This is not some gimmick by MTV; these guys have been doing this for four years before the station picked them up.

This show gets you thinking- gets me thinking. Society kind of expects us to all follow the same path to success: Go to college. Get a high paying job. Get married.  Buy a house with a white picket fence. Have 2.5 children. Crazy fantasies of going traveling the world, or writing that novel? We kind of push it aside and think we don’t have time for it.  We sort of don’t question it, it just seems the right progression of life. For some, a house with a white picket fence and 2.5 children might sound like a pretty good deal, and that’s perfectly okay. But what if that is not a life we can live and truly be happy?

As a senior, I’ve been thinking about the future a lot lately. I mean, what do I really want in life? Children have everything answered for them: “How do I do this? Where do I go from here? Where do babies come from?”  Once we get older, though, that all disappears. So that question, “What do I want in life?”, that’s something we can only answer for ourselves. That’s some scary stuff. And when things don’t turn out exactly as you planned, its absolutely terrifying.

Fear has this ridiculously strong power to hold us back. I have thought about it though, and I just can’t live my life in an average-joe kind of way. I just can’t. It’s not me. So, I’ve decided I going to model my life on the ideals of ‘The Buried Life’.

Even if things don’t turn out exactly as I plan with a career (because who knows these days), there I things I know I want to do, at least as of now. I want to hike the Appalachian trail. I want to run a marathon. I want to go to travel around the world. When I have my own place, I want a library. Not just a room with a bookshelf, but a room filled with them, with a big comfy chair and oriental rug in the middle. Maybe I’ll even throw a globe in there.

As for giving back, like the guys on this show, I want to spend a summer volunteering in a country in need. I don’t know where just yet, but I feel that it’s something I need to do. We don’t always realize all the good in ours lives, but what’s even worse is that we live like royalty compared to some. I think ‘The Buried Life’ knows this, though, and they’re dedication to helping others is a trait that is just not seen everyday.

I know it may not seem like much as far as “goals” go, and I know some of these may be hard and take a long time to achieve, but that’s another great thing about ‘The Buried Life’. These guys don’t just make a couple phone calls and have their way. Sometimes, the goals on their list takes months to finally make come true, and sometimes they have to break a few rules, too. Sometimes, they’re plans don’t work at all. They know they have to work hard (and do) to get what they dream of, though, which is something I know a lot of people my age (including myself) don’t always realize.

So as the Class of 2010 graduates this year, I hope we take with us a few tips from ‘The Buried Life’: work hard, play hard, give back, and keep good friends along the way to help you out.

Learn more about ‘The Buried Life’,  and create your own bucket list:

http://www.theburiedlife.com/blog/