I'm revisiting an old post for today's Pour Your Heart Out. Enjoy!
This is another blog prompt, and I think it goes along with several I've written in the past month or so. The bottom line to my future is I want to be happy and healthy. I want my family, especially my children, to be working toward success and productive lives. Other than that, I am ready for a journey! I'm not sure where life will take us. I never have been.
I remember in 8th grade we were supposed to be learning about goals and figuring out our lives in some class or another. We were supposed to write a 5 year plan and a 10 year plan. I got into trouble because I honestly couldn't think that far ahead. In 8th grade I was 12 years old. How in the world was I supposed to imagine what I was going to do when I graduated from high school much less what life would look like when I was 22 years old? To me at that point, 22 was bordering on old.
I also knew that what I REALLY wanted to write wouldn't have been acceptable. I wanted to write that above all my goals were to be a wife and mother. College wasn't a dream of mine; it was a dream of the education system. I'm not sure why we expect ALL kids to go to college, ESPECIALLY immediately out of high school. Sure enough, the first several years in college were really a waste of money on me. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just wanted to experience life. At 17 years old I'm not sure anyone truly has an idea of what life is all about. How can you make career choices based on such an immature mind? What was even worse for me was that for the first several months of college I was not yet an adult, and I was living with my parents. My new friends would be off running around but I would have to be home by 10 pm. To be honest, I wish I could have held onto that lack of personal accountability (laying the burden on my parents and the city curfew) for quite awhile longer. I proved quickly that I wasn't ready to make those choices as soon as I DID become a legal adult. I don't think this is an uncommon trait for young college students.
It seems I'm always at a cross-roads and can't really tell you where life is going. There was a point, five years ago, that I had things all mapped out. Then disaster struck and my husband lost his job only 11 weeks after we purchased a house. It quickly taught me that while we may have a plan, we need to be prepared for Plan B. And Plan C. How many letters of the alphabet are there again?
They say that the mind is not capable of making rational choices until after 25
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with that Sarita. I think we have our system of education all wrong. I know my life took a DRAMATIC change at age 25 as far as decision making. I think young adults should go out in the work force doing "jobs" instead of careers or even doing a trade school. College should start at age 25.
ReplyDeleteOh yes rarely do things turn out the way we want and expect.
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to truly plan ahead. We can have our hopes and dreams, but life is too unpredictable.
ReplyDeleteWe can sit and map our lives with exact precisions but sometimes life just has its own ways to unravel isn't?
ReplyDeleteTwenty six. Twenty six letters, and sometimes that still isn't enough. I think I'm on plan EE right now. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm finally at a point in my life where I fully embrace the gift of this role, and it is truly everything I ever wanted.
ReplyDeleteShell is right. Life is too unpredictable. We never know what lies ahead!
I hope there's a million things ahead for our family that I will have never planned. It's better that way.