Skydiving, swimming with dolphins, meeting the cast of the show “The Office” – everyone has a dream, but sometimes having a list on hand can help those dreams become a reality.

While the term “bucket list” has become popular mainly because of a film by the same name in 2007, the concept of achieving a list of things before one dies has been common for years.

According to an article by Christopher Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, a bucket list is used as an attempt at making life memorable and meaningful, depending on what the list contains.

“Many of the bucket lists I read contained items that struck me as narcissistic, but some did not. These lists contained items that would connect people to something larger than themselves, typically other people and their welfare,” Peterson said in the article.

For Steff Brand, freshman elementary education major, her goals of adopting an underprivileged child from China or fixing old grudges are a few of the types of bucket list goals that can lead to a fulfilling life.

“I would definitely encourage others to formulate a bucket list. Sitting down and thinking about what’s important to you helps you figure out a suitable life plan,” Brand said.

According to Peterson, a downside of the bucket list is the implication that it is simply an attempt to ‘check off the boxes’ of one’s life.

Donny Miller, junior English education major, has the opposite opinion on the matter.

“I think bucket lists are a good idea because they allow people to think about the things they really want to do in life before they die,” he said.

Peterson stresses the importance of making a bucket list out of genuine goals of great importance, rather than a badge of cool things accomplished in a life.

“How many items on a typical bucket list would be deleted if someone were not allowed to talk about them to others? A likely answer: many of them,” Peterson said in the article.

While some experts like Peterson worry about the motivation behind bucket lists, Alexis Huchthausen, freshman accounting major, said a bucket list can make life fulfilling.

“Although some people may look at having a bucket list as thinking about dying, I think they’re wrong. I think that having a bucket list makes your life more exciting,” she said.

According to an article on psychworld.com, individuals hoping to achieve a list of their goals before they die can now do it in a social networking forum, thanks to Scot Hacker, who created the website Bucketlist.org.

The site allows users to interact on a digital level, posting their own bucket list online as a way to share their list with the world, get inspired by others lists, and tell the stories of adventures checked off their list.   

“[Bucketlist.com] is a social network for people who love living life. The website is alive with amazing ideas, great dreams and completed experiences,” the article said.

Having a bucket list can really be a great tool to achieving life goals, Peterson suggests those who write one truly think about their list and if those are the most important things in life.

“If you knew with certainty that you would die tomorrow, what would you do today?” Peterson said in the article. “Would you really choose to spend your last day getting a tattoo?”