This article is dedicated to those who, much like me, have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
I live my life in constant fear of 10 words: “so what are you planning on doing when you graduate?” I can already feel myself filling with panic just typing the phrase out. I mean my palms are sweating, and I’m currently formulating new conversation points in my head in order to evade talking about my future. What’s going to happen in the next few years has never been a priority of mine; I try to take things one step at a time, and it’s usually not by choice- I just get thrown into things. To put my “in the moment” lifestyle into perspective, it’s currently 6:35 p.m., and I haven’t even thought about what I’m eating for dinner, so I reiterate: I am NOT a forward thinker. I often times play off my aversion to planning by saying “well it doesn’t matter how much I plan ahead, life is always going to throw something at me that changes my course, so why worry about it now?” I learned very quickly, however, that this is not the answer relatives want to hear over some roast chicken and slightly undercooked asparagus. The fact of the matter is, though, that I don’t have a plan; I’ve never had a plan. If you were to ask me what I did to get into college, I couldn’t even begin to tell you because I have absolutely no idea. Aside from working hard and taking things day by day, I don’t even remember looking up requirements to get into certain schools… I just went for it. Next thing I knew, I had acceptance letters from four different colleges. I still didn’t have a plan, though. I chose between those four schools based on something most of the human population doesn’t even care about: football.
That’s right, folks, I tossed aside the college guidebook explaining the academic merit and research opportunities each school offered, and I dug through years of history about 20 year old guys throwing a ball down a field, finally falling in love with the most exciting 25 seconds of college football and a rock brought all the way from California to Clemson, South Carolina. I hadn’t thought about what I planned on doing when football season was over, and I hadn’t thought about what kind of classes or instructors I would be experiencing. All I knew was that years of watching football had finally paid off and had helped me make my decision. Luckily, I was right, and on October 3rd, 2015, my college decision method culminated into the holy grail of football games. The Sixth ranked Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish came into Death Valley to battle the 12th ranked Tigers in the middle of a hurricane, and I loved every second of it. Since that day, I haven’ looked back on my decision, and everything has worked out perfectly. See, one of the things I’ve learned about taking life one day at a time, is that everything always works out, and the next day always comes. No matter how badly I screw up or how unprepared I seem to be, I am always greeted by a new day, and that day usually comes with something I could never have planned for. Instead of allowing myself to stress out over what I’m going to do for the next few years, I’ve found peace in living day to day with the people I love and taking life’s challenges one by one. So don’t let anyone get on you for not having a plan, because making things up as you go works just as well as anything, sometimes even better.
