Culture
An achievable bucket list for broke and stressed out college students
(Flickr/Anna Gutermuth)
The erratic rains and overcast skies are signaling the coming of a new school year. That means it’s also time for us to say goodbye again to another summer of possible road trips, vacations abroad, and all the other usual items on every student’s summer “bucket list.”
Does this mean that the pursuit of fun should be stalled until the next summer arrives? Of course not! There are tons of inexpensive and less time-consuming things we can do that would leave us just as satisfied as these grand items. Here is a bucket list you can actually achieve–at your own pace, at any time of the year.
RELATED: A bored-with-your-life bucket list guide for 2015
1| Prettify your workspace
To prepare for long nights slaving away on research papers and projects, it would be great to welcome the school year by keeping your work space clean and pretty. Tidy up the clutter, organize the essentials, and maybe even paint your room a color of your choice. A little hint: Blue is a color known to invite calmness in oneself, perfect for a room used for work. This simple way of redecorating your space is not only a fun personal project, but it also encourages a good work ethic for the days to come.
2| Give and receive 12 hugs a day
Procrastination, heavy eyebags, and a whole lot of complaining are things that a student with In-Between-Semester-Stress Syndrome suffers from. When you find yourself suffering from this disease, it’s the perfect time to tick off item #2 from this bucket list. Hugs spread the love –seriously– by increasing the level of oxytocin in our bodies. We know that cortisol, aka the stress hormone, shoots up whenever we’re hounded by deadlines, but do we actually do anything about it? The challenge for this item is to actively drive away the stress by ensuring you give and receive 12 twenty-second hugs a day for an entire week.
3| Make an unforgettable breakfast
Prepare yourself a breakfast fit for a king or queen. No more hurriedly made peanut butter sandwiches on your way out of the door or generic cereals with milk. One of these days, maybe on a weekend, have breakfast as your first priority upon waking up: Treat it more than just a passing meal but more of a jumpstart to a good day. Breakfast should provide you with more or less a quarter of your daily calorie intake and a source of energy and sustenance throughout the day. Take some time to look up a recipe at night and make yourself a kickass breakfast the next day.
4| Wake up an hour earlier than usual
Yes, as a student it’s an actual struggle to sacrifice your precious minutes of sleep. But waking up extra early on less busy days means you’d have more time to do a number of small, satisfying activities. With an extra 60 minutes added to your waking hours, you could have your body looking and feeling royal by either taking a short jog or putting extra effort in grooming yourself. Simple tasks like waxing, fixing up your hair, or actually putting on makeup that day are small steps to trying something new.
5| Repair old bridges
Friends are just phone calls away, until of course the day you stop ringing them. Let this day be the day you contact a friend you were unable to keep in touch with. With a new school year comes a new set of faces and people to get to know, but that doesn’t mean leaving the old ones behind. Dedicate this day for a friend date–having lunch, maybe a leisure trip to the mall, or doing something that you’ve always enjoyed doing before.
6| Start saving and investing
Try this out: Leave behind 25% of your daily allowance at home. Do it for an entire year and deposit it in a bank if you wish. Knowing how to budget and save is not only a practical skill in life, it also gives you the awesome feeling of being just a little bit richer. Let’s be real, who doesn’t want that feeling? If you’re looking to increase that sum even more and if you’re patient enough for the task, investing your money in stocks could be your first introduction into the magical yet harrowing financial world. Although it’s an extra chore to monitor the trends, for the person who loves accumulating money, there’s a simple delight in watching your investment grow peso by peso.
7| Watch a Filipino film
Filipino cinema is not yet dead! If you weren’t already aware, the Filipino indie scene is an exciting and booming genre to immerse yourself in. There are film festivals that show movies like Ang Huling Cha Cha Ni Anita, Barber’s Tales, Ang Sayaw Ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa, and On The Job among others. Taking your friends out to watch Filipino films instead of Hollywood blockbusters would be a healthy way of showing some #PinoyPride.
