As you grow older you will feel a pattern begin to emerge, a pattern of feeling totally sure about what you want to do in life, and then instantly questioning all of it. It can be very exciting to find new passions and explore new paths, but it can also be very frustrating to try and adjust your plans accordingly. Every year I find myself farther and farther away from my original plans, and as we roll into 2016, let's discuss why it is totally okay with being unsure about the future.
You walk into high school as a freshman with bright eyes and (hopefully) an open mind! You feel pretty confident about exactly what school you want to go to once you graduate, what you want to major in, and exactly what career path you want to take! Over the next four years you will have one of two things take place: your plans will remain steadfast and the same, or you will leave with a totally different idea for the future. Either way, college is next in line, so you have time to hack out the details as you go!
You then move on to college -- the big time, and you now have a whole new vision for yourself in the coming years! You have new ideas for a major, and new career goals, and everything is going to work out perfectly!
Here's where it gets complicated.
College can and likely will be the most wonderful and informative years of your life. One of the best, but often scariest parts of the whole adventure will be how these years will force you to become much more introspective. These years will shape, bend, and mold you into a person that the freshman you were four years ago may not recognize -- and that's good! You will grow, and learn, and form your own opinions about the world around you. However, you may quickly find yourself questioning your master plan, and find yourself scrambling to find direction.
I began my college experience with a very solid idea of where I wanted to go in life, and three years later I find myself at a standstill. I have altered my original plan so many times that it is nothing but a distant memory, and yet still I have little clue of which way I want to go next.
And that's fine.
There is this idea that by the end of your college career you should know exactly who you are, and exactly where you want to go, and for the people who manage to do that, I say cheers to you! Realistically though, most of us still have no idea what we're doing, because the more thought you put into your master plan, the better!
Take your time, and take a breath, and let yourself be all right with the fact that you may not decide exactly what your life will be in 2016. Make it a fantastic year -- make it your best yet, but go confidently, knowing that if you round out this year without a fully developed vision for the future, it only means you have more adventures to come.
Chase your passions, pursue happiness, and kick 2016's ass. You're going to have an amazing year.
