Here's the deal. Most of us have had the first 22 years of our lives planned out to some extent.
We start out in diapers and then mature to pull-ups, and move to pre-school where we learn to share and be nice (well some people did), and then we move to elementary school where we first encounter competitiveness, (we all had that kid that thought recess kickball was The Olympics). Unfortunately, we all had to go through our middle school phase where we all took a hit to our self-esteem (a little bit of humble pie is good I guess), and then onto high school where people told you it was now time to define yourself. You defined yourself into groups around school; the artsy group, the skater group, the popular group, the smart group, etc.
At the end of high school, I was so excited. It was time for a new opportunity, and a new way to be defined. Many people choose to continue onto college, and some choose other career paths based on their passions and interests, but for those that chose the college path, we had four more years (sometimes five) to figure out what was next.
That's the scary part though. As a senior in high school, I knew that I was going to college, and I knew I had four more years. FOUR YEARS! That's a really long time.
Well, it's four years later, and I still haven't had time to eat at all the restaurants, or meet everyone that I wanted to meet...and the list continues to go on and on. However, in those four years, I've been to incredible football games, learned in classrooms where great leaders once sat, met my best friends, and I defined who I am.
But what happens after these four years? My whole life has been years of education to prepare me for a career that until a few months ago, I had no idea what it would be. Isn't that a strange thought? We go to school for 16 years, and in the last few months of school, we pick our life's path. I don't know about you, but that is really scary.
We've always felt a sense of belonging. A belonging to a sports team, a sorority, a business club- whatever it may be, you've always had a place in the society that you felt like you belonged to. However, now is a time where you have no place, and it's scary.
I started packing my things in boxes the other day, and I came across clothes from my "emo stage" (LOL), and then picked up and folded my collared golf shirt, and placed them beside each other in a donation box. At one point in time, these articles of clothing defined who I was, and they gave me a place in society.
My wardrobe for the coming months consists of: suits, jackets, and blistering heels, but that just says "Corporate America" to me. How am I going to fit into the largest conglomerate of people? How am I am going to be defined? I no longer belong to a small social set of people.
That's the scariest part to me. It's not the fact that I don't know where I'm living, or how my job will turn out, but it's the uncertainty of the question: where will I belong after all the years?
I think the only way to look at these next upcoming months is with gusto and bravery. It's a brand new chapter and the pages are blank. Be bold and write the next chapter with whatever you want, and don't stop to wonder about the conclusion, because at the end of the day if you aren't happy, you can always close that chapter, write a new beginning, and redefine yourself.
Here's to the next chapter, and re-finding ourselves in an unknown world.
