#18- Buckets and Buckets (Chelsea Southworth)

High School: Finish a novel. I've got one pretty good NaNo already written, a NaNo that could be great given some reworking and rewriting, and a project that I'm in the planning stages of right now; before I graduate, I would like to get at least one of these (or maybe something I have yet to write, but it has to be a novel) as thoroughly revised as I can make it. I don't necessarily need to be published, and in fact I doubt that that will happen in a year in a half, but I want to take one of my first drafts through the revision process and end up with something that, with some work and dedication, could plausibly end up in print.

College: This depends on if I end up going to grad school or not, but assuming I do, I want nothing more than to study bonobos. My passion for these animals is immense; I am fascinated by their sociality, their extremely unique group behaviors as well as their extremely unique individual personalities- it would take me longer to think of something I do not find amazing about bonobos than to list every single one of the things I do. They're wonderful primates, and whether I intern at the Cincinnati zoo, volunteer at the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary, or study a wild population, I will consider any experience in college with bonobos a success.

Life: Hm. This is a hard one. I'd say the one thing I want to do is make an impact and leave a legacy. It might sound lame to those who are scientifically-inclined, but having my name on studies that I have conducted and then seeing my name used in other peoples' work is incredibly exciting to me; I would attain, at least in the niche field of primatology (but quality is more important than size), immortality to the extent that humans can grasp it. "Southworth, et. al."...if only. But outside of career ambitions, I want to make an impact on people too, whether through myself or through the book(s) that I will (hopefully) published, it does not matter to me. If I can do anything to change the world or even the small microcosm of it that I inhabit I think I'll die happy.