I had my whole life planned out since senior year of high school and determined to stay in my little timeline plan. I would graduate college with my master's by age 24. I would find my career as a pediatric nurse by 24 and settle down in an area by age 22. I would find my husband around age 22-23. I would get married at 25. I would have kids at age 27 and 29. Oh boy, was I wrong.
It is okay to have these plans in mind. It makes you feel like you have your life together and ready to conquer life, but do not expect them to be set in stone.
You may be planning to stay at college for only four years to get your bachelors, but that might not happen. In high school, you were determined to go to college with this certain major and you hear about people changing their major and you think "HA that is so not gonna be me", but it is you.
You are finding out who you are and what you want to do with your life, and that cannot be accomplished by setting a certain time frame for you to be graduated. You might take breaks during that time to explore and find yourself, and it may take eight years instead of the determined four you wanted. That is okay.
You may not find that steady, perfect job you have always dreamed of right out of college. You might not find one until a couple years after you get your master's. It is going to take time for you to find what you are truly passionate about and want to do for the rest of your life. It may take five more years till that happens, and that is okay.
Society gives us a pretty set time limit of when you should get married and have kids. If you do not get married in your twenties, then it is frowned upon. If you have kids past thirty-five, it is frowned upon.
These have been carved into our heads since we were children, but you cannot determine when these things will happen. You may find your spouse at the age of 15 or 30, have kids at 16 or 38, but that does not make you less than the person that "does it right" by society's view. You may not even have/want kids or want to get married, and that is all okay.
My point is that you do not need to be determined to live your life out by the plans you have made. Life is a roller coaster and has too many twists and turns for you to set your whole future in one little timeline.
It is okay to be ahead or behind in your plans, but do not let it consume you or bring you down. It is your life and you have to live it the way you want to and not care about the opinions of others. To enjoy all the good and bad things life has to offer, you have to be okay with the timeline God has for you, even when it does not match your own.
Back to the "Oh boy, was I wrong." : I am now a junior in college, and I changed my major and currently pursuing my studies to become a social worker. I found my husband at age 18. I am getting married this year at age 21. I do not know when I will have kids or find my steady dream job, nor do I have a set in stone plan to have it done before a certain time, and I am okay with that.
