Writing on the stall

A graffiti list of undergrad dreams.

By Carrie Golus, AB'91, AM'93

Unlike Quinn Dombrowski, AM’06, I am an amateur graffiti appreciator. I only occasionally read it. I never document it.

Until last week. I found the following “Before I die” graffiti, scribbled on the back of the door of the first-floor women’s bathroom in the Reynolds Club, to be oddly moving.

This bathroom is used almost exclusively by young people, and their collaborative bucket list reflects that. Some of the dreams listed are grandiose. Some are small and reasonable. A few are just really, really bad ideas.

I stopped at 24. There were more. I had sat in the stall, fully clothed and audibly scribbling, long enough.

I had to make a second trip for the photo.

I remain merely an amateur.

Before I die, I want to…

  1. Publish a play
  2. [Sleep with] Charlie Sheen (later commentary added: "Rethink this one")
  3. Find inner peace
  4. Finish a play
  5. Be thanked in an Oscars speech
  6. See the Earth from space
  7. Fall in love
  8. Recover
  9. Love my job
  10. Swim w/ dolphins
  11. Have there be the world I want to live in
  12. Feel like I’ve lived the dreams I have today
  13. Make a pilgrimage
  14. Purchase a $12,000 camera
  15. Have a Wikipedia page on me
  16. Save a life
  17. Earn a Pulitzer, a Guggenheim, and a National Book Award
  18. Travel the world
  19. Transition
  20. Give birth
  21. Make the Dean’s list
  22. Figure out what I want
  23. Plant a garden
  24. Get a pet lizard

May 24, 2011