Bucket lists

We all think we're going to live forever. We know we're going to die someday, but we plan so far ahead sometimes, it seems like we'll live forever. Most girls plan out their wedding day, the number of kids they want to have, what kind of man their husband should be like, it goes on. Medical students plan out what they want to specialise in, where they want to do that specialty, when they want to settle down in life etc. But can we actually control these things? Is life ever truly in our hands? We didn't control how we were born, so how can we control how we die? (this of course, barring suicide)

So why not make a to-do list, with the deadline being 'before you kick the bucket'? You were put on this earth for a reason, might as well try to find it, in your own weird, quirky way, or just see what's out there, apart from the routine life a lot of us lead.

Forming the list shows what people would want to appreciate most in life. It could range from adventure, travel, family, friends, love.. you name it. To me, the bucket list in a way can show what a person thinks they lack in their day to day life.

I guess it's a concept that's been adopted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where those children that suffer from fatal illnesses are granted the one wish they have before their death. It's a brilliant way to see a smile on these children, who suffer at such a young age. I would love to help grant a wish for one of these children someday.

My (unfinished) bucket list:
1. Have a white Christmas.
2. Skydiving.
3. Hold a snake (like in a zoo, not a wild one).
4. See the Taj Mahal.
5. Get a puppy.
6. (To be entered)

Hope... An optimist's tool to get through each day?

I've seen myself as an optimist. I haven't always been one though, but I realised that having a positive outlook  makes it easier to get through each day. Most of that positive thinking is concentrated on 'hope'. Hope for the better, hope for the future, hope for everything. But is it all an illusion? Is it just our mind playing tricks on us, to get us to see a blurred reality?
Hope may be a tool for us optimists, but how far does it get us through life? For example, if I were to keep hoping that dodo birds are going to be around again, that's a little too far (I would have said dinosaurs, but all those that believe that Jurassic Park can happen would throw eggs at me :P ). But, if I hope that somewhere along the line, they find a drug that can target a specific set of mutated genes, or fix a mutated codon, it may be a little more realistic, but not entirely, because who knows how long that will take.
Where is the line between being an optimist, a realist and a pessimist? Is is how much we hope in our day to day life? Or is it how much we believe in the betterment of tomorrow, that things will get better than they are now, and that there is some good reason for our bad misfortune?
Is hope seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but not knowing that the light is from an approaching train?