Can you remember the first time you were asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" From my experience as a technical Grown Up, the question never truly goes away, it shifts form. As you get older people start to ask you,"What are you going to study?", "What do you plan to do after school?", and even "What are you going to do when you retire?" It seems like everyone is interested in the future, and why shouldn't they be? After all it's where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.
It's an obsession, and it is Humanity's. Look into any culture worldwide and I'd bet money you'll find some Oracle or Fortune Teller or Shaman capable of gazing into the great, mystical, and not too distant future. We as people want to know what's going to happen. We want the reassurance that everything turns out the way we cross our fingers and wish it will. So, from a very young age, we become planners. You plan what you're going to study, what you're going to do, what you're going to eat, where you're going to go. And while planning in moderation is a good thing, heck even a great thing, it can reach an insurmountable peak.
When you go up to a little six year old and ask them, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", they have no idea. Most of them will say Fireman or Astronaut or Spy. I've had more than one kid tell me they were going to be a tiger when they grew up. It would be ridiculous to expect a little kid to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. And, frankly, it's ridiculous to expect anyone to know.
I can remember my senior year of high school as if it was only a few years ago. (The joke is that it WAS only a few years ago. Hilarious I know. Tip your waitress.) I felt like everything was changing, because it was, and that everyone around me was off on their clearly labeled escalator to success, while I was running around the M.C. Escher staircase. I remember having a conversation with one of my best friends, whose words outlined my thought process at the time better than I ever will:
"We're going to graduate, then we're going to pick a career, then we're going to study for that career, then we're going to graduate again, then we're going to get a job, then we're going to work there for decades, then we're going to retire, and then we're going to die."
And in some ways, she's right. A lot of those things are going to happen to a lot of people. One of those things is for sure going to happen to everyone. Unless the age of cybernetic enhancements is coming sooner than I think, we've all got finite time here on Earth. But are those milestones all there is? No.
One of the best thing about being a human being is having the ability to change. I don't want all the same things I did five years ago, and in another five years I'll have changed again. I realized I could never plan the next few stages of my life because I would have no idea what I'd want when I got there.
Now do I still plan? Absolutely!
Do I still have things that I work towards? Of course!
Are there goals I set for myself? You bet!
But I'm not ruled by any of these things and I give myself room to breath. I don't hold myself hostage in an idea of what the I think next ten, twenty, or thirty years should be. I don't try to plan the rest of my life. I do my best, work my hardest, and seek out things that are important to me.
Milestones will happen, and they'll feel great, but they'll feel that way because of what you lived through to get to them.
I'm Lissa Brooks and thanks for reading! If you want, leave a comment down below of a milestone you've experienced in your life.
