Don't Judge Your Progress
Being in college, you'll know people at points in life... don't get discouraged.
College has to be the weirdest time in most peoples lives. While most of the people you are attending class with are between the ages of 18-22, you'll also find the continuing education peeps in the 40s just trying to make it happen.
For that reason, college is one of the coolest places to be. There are so many different people walking so many different paths of life. That girl in your 8:30 class is working towards becoming an elementary school teacher. Maybe you met someone at the gym who is striving to become a trauma surgeon. There are so many personalities and so many different goals that everyone is trying to reach.
All the different people that you encounter can also make it easy for you to judge where you are in your journey. I know people who are still out every weekend (OK, maybe every night), but I also know people who are engaged and going to be married in the next year. Those are literally two TOTAL different places to be in life.
I am definitely somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. I go out most weekend, but not every weekend. Not in a relationship, but open to the ideas of one. Just walking through my every day, going to class and going to school. While I try not to dwell on where I thought I would be at when I reached this age, it definitely creeps into my mind from time to time.
Coming from the South I assumed that by the time I was 21, I would have met the love of my life and would be ready to start a family by the time I graduated from college. That's how my parents were and most of the members of my family. Boy, was I WRONG. I have no idea what I want to do when I graduate and the possibility of a family is still years and years away.
It can get discouraging not living up to the way I thought I was going to live my life but at the same time, life does not go the way you planned most of the time. You should never hold yourself accountable to serious life goals that you made when you were 16. By all means, try your best to achieve the goals you have set for yourself, but don't beat yourself up if you are not in the right time of your life to complete them.
Everyone is going to be on different points in life no matter where you are in yours. Don't get yourself down if someone is living the life you always imagined for yourself. Be happy for them that they are achieving their goals, and know that yours will soon follow suit.
