Life. Ain’t it just something. Everybody is born, and every person lives an individual life from that point on. For a large majority of us, the beginning of our lives seem rather planned out, and I fall right into that category. I was born into my family and was watched over for the first few years of my life, as babies need done. Once you start to grow up a little, you are sent out into a new world of school. It is planned for you and you really don’t make many decisions for yourself because frankly an infant doesn’t have that mental capability yet. So you go to preschool and then kindergarten and then elementary and so on. You go to school where you live or you go to a private school that your parents choose for you. The only things you really choose for yourself are what sports you want to play, what interests you in school, and who you choose to have as your friends. There aren’t many big decisions you have to make, until you get to college. First, you choose where you want to go to school, but that was still part of the plan from the time you were born. Most parents have kids and intend on them going to school and graduating college, but the planning stops there.
So here I am, a college junior, down to the second half of my college life and thinking about what is coming next. When your’e in elementary school, middle school is next. When your’e in high school, college is next. When your’e in college… well, there really isn’t anything on the schedule for “next”. This is where you get to take everything you’ve acquired in your life and put it to use. You get to be your own person, totally independent, no planned schedule for you. And guess what? It’s terrifying.
My whole life there has been a plan, and I’ve come to the end of that timeline. Thinking about what comes next isn’t easy, because there are so many different routes to take. Being involved in a lot of different organizations might sound great, but it gives you so many options of things to take and run with for the rest of your life. Everybody wants to be happy, and in the end, happiness is different for every person. Some want money, some want a family, and others want something totally different. Figuring out what you want for yourself isn’t easy, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be. And honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever be certain of what exactly I want to do with my life. After all, I’ll never forget the time my own father, who has given me countless opportunities and cared for me my whole life with never ending support, looked at me and said, “I’m a middle aged guy with a family and honestly, I don’t know what I want to do with my life.” It just made me think that you can look at someone who has a nice home, a great family, a solid job and never know that they still haven’t found exactly what they want to do with their life. So why should I have to know now?
So, don’t put too much stress on yourself to find what you want to do with your life right now. Surround yourself with good people, work hard, and your passions will lead you to find your happiness.
The inner-workings of my mind 