“Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
Personally, I dread questions like this in surveys and job interviews. My reason? I don’t have a clue. That answer had seemed fine the past few years as I progressed through high school; my only concerns were sports and where I was going for lunch that day. But last week I turned 20 years old. While 20 does not come with all the glamor and fun of your 21st birthday, I found it comes with the startling realization that you are now 20 years old.
In my early teenage years, I made so many plans for my future. Didn’t we all plan out how perfectly our lives were going to be? I was set on going to the University of Washington, getting married, having a family and a nice job in Seattle by the time I was 25. Fast forward to today and my life resembles nothing close to this. I attend a smaller university, where I am incredibly happy, and the idea of marriage in five years seems laughable. I’m still working hard to one day secure a good job, but Seattle is somewhere I could never see myself living. And frankly I don’t even know if I want kids.
All I’m trying to say is people change. You change. It’s how life operates. If life played out exactly how we wrote it in seventh grade, how boring would that be, and how much would you hate yourself? Those moments and surprises in life are what shape who we become.
So what if you don’t have your life all figured out at this very moment? I can guarantee that almost everyone around you is feeling the same way. Just because someone has a good paying job doesn’t mean they have life all figured out. Success is partial to the viewer. That person may seem like they have it all put together from your point of view, but could be working through their own struggles you can’t see. Someone may think you have everything figured out because you consistently turn your homework in on time, but you still call your dad during tax season because you can’t do yours on your own.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone truly has life completely figured out. Growing up is not a process that starts at birth and ends when you turn 18 like society makes it out to be. I think you start growing from the day you are born to the day that you die. All the things that happen in between are only relative when you’re 80-something looking back on your life and you realize you did pretty well, and you start to see all those memories fit together. Who cares about that internship you didn’t get or that class you failed or that girl who didn’t like you back. None of those things you planned out so carefully are going to matter in the end. All you can do is live day to day being the best person you can be, and hopefully, one day, all those pieces will fall into place.
