Hands up if you bought into the notion that life would go the way you planned. Fantasizing about the future as kids and teens, we believed the myth that life after high school would follow a specific trajectory. From movies to TV shows to pop culture, we were convinced of a picture-perfect life. After high school came college, then finding a dream job and making a lot of money, falling in love with your soulmate, starting a family, and comfortably retiring. Little did we know when we were younger that we were dead wrong.

Nothing in life goes as planned. There isn't one universal prescription of life. The most unexpected twists and turns shape the futures of our lives.

Yet, it is in this paradox that we find the beauty of life.

Embracing this beauty will help you grow and come to terms with unanticipated situations that occur on a daily basis. I say this as someone who is constantly evolving into a new person. Life has been the biggest lesson I've had to learn in my college years. Life never goes as planned, especially not in the long run. Plans you make today for yourself five or ten years from now, likely won't take shape in the exact way you imagined. Things happen and these things change the trajectory of the future. If we convince ourselves into thinking nothing could go wrong, we would be stuck. The mere notion of constant change needs to reflect in us, our actions and our outlooks.

Life changes and so must we.'

We spend so much time getting ready for this future, stressing over what hasn't happened, and setting plans for what's next that we forget to live in the moment. We forget to celebrate how far we've come. We forget that life isn't always going to unfold how we want it to—but maybe that's the most beautiful part.

I always thought my life would be 'perfect' if I just did all the things I wanted if I had just a little bit more success, or money, or the 'right' person's hand to hold. But that wasn't true. (And none of those scenarios worked out, anyways).When life deals you a blow, you can either grow from it or cower in the shadows and become a shadow of a person yourself. If you stand up to the adversity life deals, you will better yourself for the future. Lessons learned today affect the person you become tomorrow. I always try to be a better version of myself and take everything life deals in strides. If not today, then tomorrow. No one is perfect and we have to acknowledge our constant growth to see how life has shaped us and whether or not we like the person looking back at us in the mirror.

We're always changing and the plans we have might work out in the end, but we must be open to things messing up our plans.

This is the beautiful enigma of life.