I'll be the first person to tell you, I'm not where I thought I'd be with my life right now. And guess what, I'm only 20. You might think, "That seems odd, how can you already be off track?" or " You had a plan in place already?" And, yes, I did. It didn't work out and that's okay.
Up until about high school, I knew that I wanted to be a large animal vet; I was dead set on this. I have drawings from 2nd grade in a folder that show the layout I hoped to have at my veterinarian center. I played vet all of the time, I read all of the books and I was dead sure that being a vet was what my future held.
Fast forward a few years to high school, and I find that I've become a bit more indecisive. It was not that I had lost the passion for being a vet per se, but I had seen my dad struggle with job stability. I was also realizing how much schooling such a career would require and just how expensive that education would be. Meanwhile, I was in Band and loving every minute of it; I had also joined Navy JROTC and, although I wasn't quite sure during my first day, I quickly learned to love it.
Sliding into senior year, I had started applying to the service academies. I was also applying for ROTC scholarships and even began the process of enlisting in the Navy as a Nuclear Engineer, just as a backup plan in case I did not get into an academy or receive the scholarships I had applied for. Plan A was to go to a service academy at no cost, then commission into the service and serve for a full 20 years. Plan B was to receive an ROTC scholarship, major in mechanical or nuclear engineering, commission into the service and then serve my 20 years. Plan C was to enlist as a Navy Nuke and do the whole college thing on the G.I. Bill.
Notice how different this is from my original dreams of becoming a veterinarian. Life changes, and it changes quickly sometimes. I was qualified but not selected for the Service Academies and medically disqualified for Navy enlistment but not to becoming an officer. In addition, I was accepted into 15 other colleges. I confirmed enrollment at CU Boulder, and, two hours before the deadline to confirm with a college rolled around, I changed my mind; it just didn't feel right. I then confirmed my enrollment at the University of Minnesota without ever having toured the campus.
After my first year of college as a Mechanical Engineering Major and Music Minor (and breaking my humerus), I decided to change my major to Saxophone Performance, I met the coolest guy in my marching band, and, on top of that, I'm loving the Air Force, a branch I originally felt unsure about.
All of this to say, I'm not where I thought I originally would be, not by a long shot. But, I'm here and loving it. Someone along the way mentioned to me at one point, "You know, Sam, there are lots of different ways to get from Point A to Point B." Point A was me in high school and Point B was me becoming a commissioned officer in the military. I could have gotten into the service academies and then be commissioned; I could have done what I'm doing by going to college and participating in ROTC; I could have attended college and then done a post-college commissioning program; I could have enlisted and done a Seaman to Admiral program; I also could have enlisted, used my G.I. Bill and then done a different commissioning program, among so many other options.
The problem that we have today is that people think, "This is what I want to do and this is the only way I want to do it." But that idea is actually what kills dreams. Be set on your goals but be flexible in your methods. Always look into the backup plans, and never give up a chance to achieve your goals just because it's not how you originally intended on setting about doing it.
