To Whom It May Concern,

I get it. Its an easy conversation starter with someone my age. You hear that I am heading into my last semester of college, and it just naturally slips out: “what are your plans for after you graduate?” The stern face I make in response isn’t out of confusion as to your question, or embarrassment that my answer is “I don’t know.” This face is out of pity that you, along with so many others, feel that it is so necessary for me to have a thought out answer to this question in my back pocket.

I have spent closer to four long years trying to figure out what exactly it is I’d like to make my plan upon my graduation. There are days when a piece of that plan has been clear. Little by little I’ve discovered what I am good at. What I love. And while these aspirations may not pan themselves out so easily into a tangible career path, I’ve made some progress.

There are also days when this plan seems wrong. When my work becomes overwhelming to the point that, instead of loving it, I question whether I am on the right track at all anymore. These days are trying, and push me further away from this so called “plan” you believe I should have. But these days also teach me patience, and maybe an even more important lesson than the good days seem to do: they teach me what it is that I don’t love. What I’m not passionate about. And sometimes learning this can be even more commemorative than their positive conjugates.

So, as I continue to look you intently in the face, rehearsing the most acceptable tone to spurt out “I don’t know” in, I remind myself of this: I don’t have it all figured out, and that’s okay. I’m young. I’ve only experienced so much, and I still have so much more to learn. College is not the end-all be-all to me figuring out what it is I plan on doing ten, twenty years down the road. By focusing too keenly on that so called “plan” you are suggesting, I will most certainly lose sight of those events whose lessons will help guide me in the right direction. So don’t look at me with such judgment when “I don’t know” rolls off my lips. I’ve got a much more important plan in the works.