Everyone has a bucket list, normally one that is generalized and is within the standards of normal idealizations of what one “should” dream big for, myself included. You know, things like skydiving or seeing the Eiffel Tower.
Held closer to my heart than this bucket list is another one full of niche “achievements” and “wishes”. Just random things, perhaps even seemingly irrelevant, but ultimately so specific to me that they become the strangest of heartfelt notions. Notions of allowing yourself to embrace your own individuality, to have strange, silly, soft dreams.
Here is my bucket list of niche.
1. Solve the Wordle in only one guess.
2. Meet someone with the same name as me.
3. Pet a deer. In the wild.
4. Cite “All Too Well (Ten Minute Version) (Taylors Version)” in an academic paper.
5. Flip a water bottle until it lands on the cap. (Yes, I never achieved this during the bottle flipping fad.)
6. Have a song that I am thinking of randomly come on as I am thinking of it.
7. Get a black eye.
8. Stand on Terracotta tiles, bonus points for with bare feet.
9. Adjust the sails on a sailboat.
10. Unclog a drain. I don’t know why.
11. Have a random stranger hand me their baby unexpectedly, something I have seen in multiple movies and cannot fathom being real, and therefore must experience to use as qualitative and observational evidence that it could in fact be real.
12. Encounter a situation where I ACTUALLY have to use a geometry proof for something practical. (Highly unlikely and carries the potential of either proving something to my high school geometry teacher, or actually just embarrassing myself. Willing to find out.)
13. Convince at least one person that they do not need a top sheet on their bed to sleep comfortably. I hate top sheets.
14. Cut soap. Like those aesthetic YouTube videos.
15. Make it through doing my taxes WITHOUT crying.
16. Qualify for a random lawsuit and the compensation that comes with it solely for just so happening to purchase whatever product has somehow created trouble.
17. Feel like I have been drawn in one of those stupid “Did I accidentally draw you?” Tik Toks.
18. Get trapped in an elevator (in an easily rescuable way).
19. Put in eyedrops WITHOUT missing on the first try.
20. Meet a child that looks and acts EXACTLY like Junie B. Jones.
There are probably at least a hundred more items that could complete this list, but I can’t write all night.
All in all, embrace the niche. It is perfectly okay to aspire to rock a black eye or finally use a drain snake that you have seen lots of dads hype up in your life, more than you dream of going on an extremely coveted vacation or something.
Niche is nice.