When I sat down to write this article, I was having a really hard time thinking of what to write. Like hardcore struggling. Writer’s block is a real thing, folks. So I did what I always do and texted my friend an SOS. After about ten minutes of brainstorming (AKA her giving me fifty ideas while I stared at my phone in thought), I decided I’d just write about all of the things.

Okay, so not really ALL of the things, because that would take a really long time and a lot more words than I’m willing to write. But I was thinking about all the things I have and haven’t done in my life and all the things I still want to do. I thought about all the things that have impacted my life in the past and how all those things may have changed where my future will lead me.

I feel like this thought is funny coming from an eighteen-year-old, because I haven’t had too much experience with life, and there’s so much more to come. However, I feel like the first 20 or so years of a person’s life is filled with a lot of different stages and transitions, so I’m going to use that to my advantage here.

Hindsight is a funny thing. Looking back at the eighteen years of life that I’ve led so far, I see that there are a lot of things that I have not done. Some are things that I have to say I’m glad I’ve avoided; others are things that I hope to accomplish one day. I’ve never been to a funeral or gotten in a car crash or gone through a breakup. I know that all of these things will most likely happen one day, but I’m just glad that they haven’t happened yet. And I’ve never been camping or mountain climbing or skydiving, even though I would totally love to at some point.

This is not to say that I’ve had an uneventful or unfulfilling life, because both of those statements would be very false; I’ve also done a lot of things that other people don’t get to do. I’ve moved across the country and traveled to El Salvador. I’ve been part of a newspaper staff, an extremely large youth group, two different camp staffs, and a super cool social club (go Chi Beta), all of which make you feel like part of a family. I’ve had jobs and made friends and gone on trips. I’ve had experiences that feel like they should be on a bucket list.

Because of all the things that I’ve done, I have become more ambitious. Because of all the things that I haven’t done, I have more goals. I want to get a job and live in an apartment. I want to own a house and have a family. I want to travel the world and try new things. I have a goal to have more goals. I want to do things that I haven’t even heard of yet. But these are all dreams.

I used to have a simple plan for my life: fall in love, get a good job, and have a stable life (because it’s just that easy, right?), but now I’ve learned that things don’t happen like that. Life throws all sorts of things at you; you’re going to do some things and not others. I may not be able to accomplish all the things I have on my bucket list; if we’re honest, I probably won’t do half of the things that I want to. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try; it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t dream about them. I’ve already done things that I never would have thought I would. So I’m going to make a plan, set goals, and have dreams, and we’ll just have to see where life takes me.