When you were little you were probably told that when you grew up you could be whatever you wanted to be. Then you grew up and you were told you needed to be something that made a steady income and could support you. What a dream crusher, am I right?

I remember being in high school not so long ago and feeling the weight of choosing a college and deciding what career path to take and I knew what I wanted to do which is what I have always wanted to do. I wanted to write and I wanted to sing. Both are great. Plenty of writers and plenty of singers make tons of money off of their work, but they don’t start out that way, and some never really get that way. That can be a scary thought, and so does trying to make it at all in that business. That’s where the back-up plan comes in.

Dear reader, I hope with all of my heart and soul that you have never chosen your back-up plan in place of what you truly wanted to do just because it sounded like the easy way out. I on the other hand have. My back-up plan was to become a psychologist (rumor is they make some good money) and more specifically a military psychologist because I genuinely love psychology and one time a military psychologist came to one of my classes to speak and he made his job sound so very cool. I don’t know if you know anything about majoring in psychology, but what I know is that if I ever wanted to make it to the top and make a nice sum of money then I would need to go to school for longer than four years. I would need to get my doctorate. Now obviously that is a great accomplishment that I have the highest respect for, but it is not something I am interested in doing. Feel free to laugh at how I thought my back-up plan was “the easy way out.” I most certainly do.

Thankfully I have some super supportive people in my life and a loving God who gave me talents that He has made evident that He wants me to use. I am not going to become a psychologist even though I still think that would be awesome. Instead, I am an English major. I have a major in which I lightly poke fun at because as far as I know, the need for me is not in high demand, and honestly I am okay with that. I have a huge passion and desire to write and sing for the rest of my days. I am so excited for my future no matter how unsteady it may seem. I may not ever make a lot of money, but I won’t regret doing what I love for as long as the good Lord lets me.

So I guess what I am trying to say in all of this is to not let yourself one day look back on your life knowing that you settled for what seemed easy and safe, and wishing you could go back and do it all over again to do what you truly wanted. No matter what it is, and no matter what others say, never settle. You are too good and too talented to settle for your back-up plan.