I love kids. Kids are the future. They are smart, compassionate, innocent, pure, carefree and beautiful. Their perpetual questioning annoys adults to no end, but this is simply pure curiosity at it's finest. Their instincts are to acquire as much information as they can and to have fun while doing it. Their imagination knows no bounds.

I absolutely love children.

I also don't really want one of my own.

I don't want a family.

I'd honestly rather have a dog.

Now hear me out, I'm sure I have family or friends reading this and saying to themselves something like "Don't be ridiculous, Elizabeth. You're young, your opinion will change."

I am in no way saying that I will never have kids, or get married and have a family, or that I won't ever want them in the future — I'm fully aware that wants and desires change and regularly shift. I'm fully aware that I cannot predict the future or even accurately anticipate what is going to happen to me in due time.

So, who's really to say that I will not desire a family in 5 or 10 years? Certainly, the answer to that question is notyou, though.

If you had asked me five years ago I would have said differently, I would have said: "Of course I want to have kids!" However, I was an ignorant teenager when I was 15. I lived with my head in the clouds, in my own little bubble, my own little world. The thoughts in my head were irrational and, in fact, unrealistic in relation to the kind of person I actually am. It really bothers me that people believe the current status of my beliefs are invalid for the future simply because opinions modify over time. Nobody ever questions the opinions of one when they are expected opinions to hold. For example:

At 10, I had no primary concerns for my future self. My life consisted of riding my bike, playing softball and going to the park. Those are current expectations for a child to focus on by people.

At 15, I wanted to get good grades and get my license. I wanted to graduate high school and go to college. Again, still valid desires. Expected of a teenager.

At 20, my priorities for my future are graduating college and getting a job. Which once more, are still valid and expected out of me. But as soon as I claim I don't want kids of my own it's considered absurd or ridiculous that I would even make that assumption about my future.

Why is it, that when I claim a discrepancy with the general consensus of my peers is it considered invalid? Why is it that because priorities shift as time goes on should they be considered unreasonable at the moment? You don't have to agree with my desire, but it's my life, not yours. So your opinion doesn't really matter anyway.

This isn't an argument claiming why I don't want to have kids, but merely a demonstration that in my future I do not need to have "raise a family" or "marriage" on my bucket list. This is merely an example that displays that, yes, opinions can change and likely will with the acquisition of new information. But that doesn't mean what you believed at the moment was false.

There are other things in life, and I will not apologize for not having the same wishes as other kids my age. No one should have to. My future priorities do not line up with those of my peers, and that's OK. But, to me, what's not OK is when people try to tell me that my current opinion is absurd simply because those kinds of opinions fluctuate.

Don't tell me what I want now will change with the times because no one can predict that. You are free to ask for particular reasons, however, that should just be purely conversational.

So, yeah, I don't want kids of my own. And to reiterate once more, I am not saying that my opinion is set in stone — because it isn't. But that doesn't mean my intrinsic desire to not want a family in my future is invalid right now.