Messages of inspiration resonated through Sacramento State’s University Union Ballroom during “The Buried Life” lecture held Thursday.

Hundreds of students gathered to hear the four-man crew of the MTV show tell stories of their journeys – including everything from being broke college students to crashing a party at the Playboy mansion.

The reality documentary series follows Duncan Penn, Jonnie Penn, Ben Nemtin and  Dave Lingwood and their attempts at completing a bucket list of 100 things to do before they die. For every item they check off their list, they help bring someone closer to completing theirs.

The lecture, brought to campus by UNIQUE and sponsored by Verizon, gave students a glimpse of what “The Buried Life” is all about.

The four guys spoke about each of their beginnings. From Duncan’s experience with his friend’s accidental death and Jonnie’s tales of being a broke student, the four of them came together to figure out what they were going to do with the rest of their lives.

“If anything was possible in life, what would you want to do?” Duncan said. He said this is the question that drove the group to begin their project.

The crew told the audience about their early approaches to the project and their first female addition to the group – Penelope the bus. They showed clips from several episodes including them bull riding and reuniting a father and son.

One of the group’s messages to the audience was to “be yourself,” because “you inspire other people to be them.”

The guys emphasized the importance of living for the moment because “today is the youngest you’ll ever be.”

The group’s motivational messages inspired several members of the audience to live for the moment.

When a group of boys ran up onto the stage in the middle of the lecture to meet the crew and get their autographs, the crew acted surprised but embraced the spontaneity of the boys’ actions.

“We’ve done probably 50 of these the last year, and no one’s ever done that,” Jonnie said. “Sac obviously holds it down.”

The crew let audience members come up to the microphone and name one thing off their own bucket lists. Sophomore international business major Stephanie Vasquez worked up the courage to ask one of the members out on a date.

“You only live once,” Vasquez said. “When else do you get the opportunity to meet a celebrity and ask him to really do something like that?”

Jonnie said their messages being well received helped make a better environment for the guys and the audience.

“It was lot of fun,” Jonnie said. “Everyone was all loose and joking around. It makes it a lot more fun for us when everyone’s having fun.”

Jonnie said there is no better time than college to make goals and work toward them.

“College is unlike any other point in your life when you can do literally anything,” Jonnie said. “We just want people to feel like they can relate,” he said. “If they have things they want to do they can see themselves in us and do them.”

Lingwood said there is one idea all people should know.

“You have the answer inside yourself,” he said. “You just have to ask yourself, what do (I) want to do before (I) die?”

Alex Slavas can be reached at [email protected]