I am emotional. I am idealistic and fanciful. I am practical and goal driven.

As a freshman in college, I am told that one of those statements above does not belong. But as an 18-year-old amateur philosopher, who creates isms in Target parking lots, I am here to refute the education I am paying thousands and thousands of dollars for.

I am here to tell you that your wildest dream is a practical future. I am here to tell you that the key to “adulting” successfully is never growing up.

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were little? When I was little my response was always “I want to be a princess” my eyes would light up as I spoke these words, and I knew that I was going to be a princess. Until the “real” world around me heard those responses, and they told me that I should find a “more adult thing to focus on”. So I cheated the system and chose something that makes my eyes light up just like I was a little girl because I am going to be the adult version of a princess. I am studying international business with a minor in French, on track to go to law school to study social justice, so I can pursue a career in education advocacy. It’s a mouthful, but it’s me doing everything I imagined a princess would do; speak different languages, travel the world, wear clothes that evoke power, and make the world a better place through the smile of a child.

So what does my becoming a princess have to do with a philosophy made up in a Target parking lot? Well, when I was little and said what I wanted to be I was often scoffed at, and as I am a freshman in college and tell people what I want to do in my life, I am still scoffed at. People look at me and say “oh wow, well you know that could always change, you’re only a freshmen” or I am on the receiving end of something even worse, an isolating expression that screams “wow how do you know this?” So I found my “adult” path, and I still am told it’s childish to “assume” I know where I am headed in life, well I’ve known this for a very long time. Yes it’s idealistic, but to satisfy the worlds needs I have it laid out in a practical, attainable plan (believe me it’s color coded). They say I’m in over my head and should not be so rigid in this idea for my life.

Through this rigidity, I often times am able to get carried away in my trying to be practical about my ideal life. The world around me tells me to plan every moment, yet my heavenly father tells me to simply trust my idealism in him. Jeremiah 29:11 assures us with words from the father “’for I know the plans I have for you’ declares the Lord ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’”, the Lord tells us that our plans, are nothing in perspective to his plans for our life. I often times allow myself to become stressed by the world around me, and by the plans I have for my life, that I’m not one to give up. It is during these times that I look to God and he brings me hope and a “peace that transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7), so that I can focus on His ideal plan for my life. One not bound by the practicalities of the world around me. He tells me to focus on the idealistic side. And always carry with me hope.

So the idea of practical idealism, the philosophy I live by. I am an idealistic dreamer, pursuing the incredible, out of this world plans my Lord has for me, yet I am practical in this pursuit. Because I know that no matter what I plan out in a strict color coded fashion, the Lord is the one who is already working in my favor, I just need to be filled with peace and trust in his plan for my life, and continue to of course attend my 17 credit hours of classes.

I am emotional. I am idealistic and fanciful. I am practical and goal driven.

This is exactly how the Lord wants me, because this is how he made me, and it’s all his plan.