My Future Comes First

Something that I am entirely sick of hearing is about how I will change my mind about wanting kids one day.

"That's what I said when I was your age."

"Everyone says that."

"You'll change your mind!"

I do not even like children, nor do I wish to have any. If that changes in the future then so be it but stop expecting me to want children just because I am a woman. I have never heard this same complaint from my male counterparts so why must I have future plans that include children?

I cannot stand it. Right now, what is incredibly important to me, more so than anything else, is my future.

I am halfway through a degree in Journalism and another in Women's and Gender Studies. I also have future plans to go to law school. Right now, most of my twenties are going to be spent getting an education.

With living on my own, working a part-time job, working on a double major and trying to live my college life to the fullest, the last thing on my mind is reconsidering my plans for my future for children that do not even exist.

I do not wish to play into the idea of a family with two kids and a white picket fence. Not that that does not sound great and all, but I think it should be okay for me to have other plans.

I want to finish my degrees and travel and get a place in the city of my choice and live the life I want to live and make choices for myself without societal expectations getting in the way of what I want to do.

It is okay to want to do things in an unorthodox manner and my future is more important than what some people may expect me to do with my future.

Even if I do decide I want children, then I will adopt them. I have been adamant about the idea of adopting children to which I have heard "But don't you want them to be YOURS?"

This is also a horrible question to ask because that implies that all people who adopt are not the real parents of their children and also that all people who are adopted are not the real children of their parents.

Stop telling young girls what they need to do with their future just because that is what is expected of them.