Alright, guys, this article is for my fellow comrades who have literally never understood what anyone was talking about when they discussed the UVA Bucket List. I’m a transfer student who just got here in the Fall of 2017 and boy was I in for a whirlwind of ‘traditions.’
I knew that there were typical UVA things that people did. For instance, I knew everyone hung out on the lawn and that the honor code was a huuuuge deal, but that was about it. I thought it was just a school where a lot of people were involved and really enjoyed socializing with their peers—and it is! What they didn’t tell me was that there are a lot of rituals (that sounds a bit cultish, but it’s better than calling them unwritten laws, right?) that students want to take part in before graduation.
My roommates were the first people to mention anything on this list, and, of course, the first thing to come up was streaking the lawn. Guys, I always thought that streaking at college campuses was a joke. I seriously assumed that it was something that only happened in movies. Well, you know what they say about assuming things. It makes an ass of you and me. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to me though because I didn’t even know what the Corner was when I first got to Charlottesville—but trust me, I know what it is now.
That being said, where in the world even is this bucket list? People reference it all the time. I’ve even had professors ask me if I’ve completed anything on it and I typically just laugh and say “oh yeah, a few things…” and guess what? I am completely lying. Is this some kind of old text that lies in the depths of some building, covered in glass that people go to see and take pictures of? That’s seriously what I imagine every time someone talks about it. That probably doesn’t make this whole thing sound less cultish, but just remember that’s from my own imagination—that’s not actually what it looks like. At least I don’t think so. I’ll let your imagination run with that one.
So, as I thought about writing this, I knew I needed to actually find a copy of this list—and guys, I did. I found the official UVA Bucket List on fourthyearbucketlist.wordpress.com. There’s a whole WordPress blog dedicated to it?! Is that wild to anyone else but me? There are things on this list that I’ve never heard of, but there are also a bunch of things that I’ve actually already done!
There are also a ton of things on the list that really got me laughing. One of the things to do is “ride the UTS bus.” Uhm, I ride the bus almost every day, so let’s check that lovely guy off the list. Another is “say thank you to a University employee.” I didn’t know that people didn’t just naturally do that? But hey, different strokes for different folks, you know what I’m saying?
All of this aside, the bucket list I found was for the class of 2013, so maybe this hasn’t always been a tradition. I just have so many questions about it. Who made this? Does it change every year? When was it created? There’s so much mystery behind it all! Maybe this is because I’m a transfer student and I’m still figuring out my way around the lovely grounds, but for anyone who doesn’t know about the list, here’s a small lesson for you! I hope you have as many questions and as much enthusiasm about it as I do. For everyone who does know about the list, please, please explain the details of this to me—I am mystified and must know more.
Here’s a picture of the list that I found, and I’m praying that this is the one that everyone references. If it’s not, then I’m going to believe that the real list is somewhere underground, being protected by the ghosts of Thomas Jefferson and Edgar Allan Poe. Actually, I’m just going to go with that because that is way cooler.
