As I embark on the final year of my undergraduate college career, the only thing people want to know about me is what I will be doing after. My instinctual response is, “I have no idea.” While I do have goals and aspirations for my life, I have never been the type of person to have a 10-year plan. I have friends that knew exactly what the next four years would hold after they graduated high school. Anything I planned out for my next four years was thrown off track in the first few months. I have come to realize that sometimes life is more fun when things are unexpected.

After transferring multiple times and changing majors, I am constantly left feeling like there is always something else I would rather be doing. I could drop out of school, get a 9-5 job, and be stagnant in wherever I decide to be. I could change my major again to whatever I’m feeling one day and be stuck in school even longer. I’m not going to do either of those, but they have crossed my mind a time or two. So when the question of what are you going to do comes up, I usually say whatever sounds the best. I’ve noticed that the look on the faces asking the question turns from curiosity to pity.

It seems from my experience people think that when you don’t have a plan set in stone and practically waiting for you at the end of the road, your life must be a mess. I want to go to graduate school after graduating from undergrad. I want to get my dream job in some type of publication office. I know I want all of these things. I also believe that when you speak things into existence and tell yourself you will do what you want they are more likely to actually happen. Heaving these aspirations for my life doesn’t mean I want to run around and tell every person that asks because I don’t know when or where they are going to happen.

Being from somewhere that I’m not currently residing is also a big factor. After they ask what I’m going to do they ask where I’m going to do it. I obviously love my home state but I know it’s not going to be the same as it was when I lived there years ago. People change and places change. There are also so many places in the country and world that I crave to explore. So at this point the options are endless. An opportunity could come tomorrow that is too good to turn down. The opportunity might come in months or even after graduation. While looking into the options that the future holds I take it all with a grain of salt, and keep it to myself. Nothing is certain until it is.

I’m not saying to keep your curiosity to yourself. All I am saying is that even people don’t have their life on a timeline have goals, they’re just written in pencil instead of pen. You never know what’s going to happen or what your life can hold.