Throughout your time in college, even as a freshman, you are asked, “what do you want to do with your life?” As a naïve 18-year-old, this question doesn’t really bug you. Having a career, a family, or even becoming financially independent seems like it won’t happen for a while. You are able to answer that question usually with “I want to have a degree,” “I’m going to have a successful career,” or “I want to help people around me,” and these answers are usually good enough for our parents and other adults in our life, even if we don’t necessarily mean them entirely.
Senior year hits, and you realize that this question is becoming more of a reality than you ever thought it would be. The last four years have gone by so quickly and you are months away from walking away with a very expensive piece of paper. But do you actually know what you want to do with the rest of your life?
So much changes in a short amount of time. During your time in college, you most likely have changed your major at least two or three times because you are growing and learning about yourself. Why do you have to have a plan for the rest of your life if you know that you can’t guarantee that everything is going to be the same forever? We are humans, and we are constantly changing.
We live in a culture that puts great importance on always having a plan and knowing what’s next. Having a plan is not all bad; we have to plan to a certain extent, but there comes a point when you are so busy thinking what is going to come next that you aren’t living in the moment and you aren’t even close to a goal of ultimate happiness.
As a college senior myself, I can tell you I have no real plan for what my life is going to look like even in a couple of months, let alone for the rest of my life. Yes, this scares me greatly, but on the other hand, it also gives me great excitement. I have so many paths that I can venture down, and there is something very liberating about that.
We can’t predict where our life is going to go, regardless of the amount of hard work and planning we put into our dreams and potential careers. Something at last minute can come up and change everything. So for those like myself who have no idea what to do with the rest of our lives, I tell you it's okay, and to enjoy and embrace it. Having no plan doesn’t mean you aren’t successful or responsible, life is just plain hard sometimes, and you don’t always know what to do. And that is completely okay. Enjoy today and worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.
