Don’t die with a bucket list

Opportunities are avenues to fulfilling hopes and dreams. We are given opportunities and we make opportunities, but what we do with them is entirely up to each of us.

There are many things in life we all want to do. They are things that give us hope. Failing to take advantage of opportunities leaves our hope as little more than unfulfilled dreams. It should be the other way around. Our dreams foster hope and hope fuels our drive to take advantage of our opportunities.

Many times in my journalism career I have been asked how I got so lucky to get such-and-such assignment or why I did this or that story. The answer has always been the same. I did it because I wanted to and I could. This extends beyond my job and into my family life as well.

When you live on a tight budget, you learn to maximize your opportunities. If you can’t afford to attend a certain event, I find you can often volunteer and often get better access and a much more rewarding experience.

Being a journalist opens many doors for me, but being a volunteer has enriched my life. For example, I couldn’t afford a state park pass, so my son and I joined the volunteer organization at Brazos Bend State Park. Not only do we go to the park all we want for free, but we also received extensive training and made a bunch of new friends. It’s fun to hold the snakes and baby alligators while teaching park visitors about the local wildlife. You don’t get that by just visiting the park.

Additionally, I love attending science fiction/comic book/fantasy conventions. I began as a ticket-buying member of the public, but learned that a press pass gives you access that the general public doesn’t have. You do have to work for it, but there are worse things to do in life.

I have been a volunteer for two years at Houston’s Comicpalooza comic convention. I love being able to help people and make them feel special. I also enjoy getting to meet the celebrity guests behind the scenes. Despite their fame and wealth, celebrities are just regular people.

One year in Denver, I was having a green room interview with Anthony Michael Hall while my wife and infant son were waiting in a reception area. Sandy, my wife, was beaming at the attention baby Luke was getting from this kindly old lady. Sandy thought the lady was just a worker helping with the convention. I later informed her that it was Dee Wallace, best known as the mom in “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.”

The point I’m making is that no one assigned me to cover the convention. I saw an opportunity, got the OK from my editor, and did it. I believe my employers and the readers of the papers I’ve worked for have benefitted and enjoyed the fruits of my extracurricular labor.

I used to attend a lot of Promise Keepers events. As a reporter, I got to know coach Bill McCartney and met several other big wigs with national and international Christian ministries. As a volunteer, I met a lot of the attendees and really learned how Promise Keepers impacted their lives and saw first hand how God used the event to transform men and their families.

I use these personal examples to show how much more enjoyable my life has become when I went from dreaming and hoping for something to happen to making opportunities and making them happen. Life really is what you make of it.

For all of the things in this life that we have to do, there are plenty of things we get to do. Sometimes you just have to pursue them rather than wait for them to happen. If I waited to be assigned to some of these fun things or waited for a celebrity’s public relations person to contact me, I would still be waiting and wishing and hoping and dreaming and not doing anything.

Don’t die with a bucket list. Empty that sucker! You only get one shot at this life so make the most of it.