From a pretty darn young age, we're constantly told to plan for our futures. We're told college is the way to go and to know what you want to do before you get there so you can get in and out quickly, and get straight into working away our days. We're told to make a Four Year™ plan and stick to it.
It's become, and has been for quite some time, the norm for children to have a set idea for what they want their lives and themselves to look like by the time they reach certain ages.
Most of us probably fell into the large percentage of people who did plan out most aspects of our lives. And most of us were probably pretty disappointed when nothing ended up the way we wanted them to.
Planning is obviously helpful and even ideal sometimes. But over planning and desperately chasing the picture of a "perfect life" shouldn't be what we're doing.
Yes, college is a great start for life after high school. Go figure out who you really are and what you really like, and maybe somewhere along the line, find what you'd actually like to do for the rest of your life. But it's also okay to take a gap year or two. There are more ways to find yourself than just jumping straight into more school.
If the world is calling your name or you want to go help people in need, just go. Travel for a little while. See the sights. Be a nomad for a few months. Go live with your distant cousin or aunt for a while on the other side of the country. Take up some random job in some random city and meet new people. Just go! Don't be afraid of failure. If it doesn't work out, you can go home again. There's no shame in taking risks.
It's also more than okay to change your mind. You don't need to stay with a major or even an entire department just because you think you need to or if someone is telling you that you should. I've been in college for four years and I've changed my major three times. I'm also having to stay for an extra year to meet all of the requirements, but I'm much happier with what I'm doing and what I will be doing once I'm done. It's worth it.
Going to a community college for the first two years is, honestly, a pretty good idea in my opinion. I wish I would have gone to community college at first. I would have been able to get all, or most, of the distributional requirements out of the way while also realizing in that time that what I originally thought I liked I actually despised. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going to community college, no matter what anyone says.
Most importantly, stop planning for everything. Life happens. You'll never be able to completely and accurately guess where you'll be in five years. People are constantly changing, whether we realize it or not. You probably won't like the same things you do a year from now. Don't put deadlines on your life and don't make decisions or add extra stress and pressure to yourself based on other people's lives. Just because your childhood best friend is getting married in six months doesn't mean you have to shack up with someone who is clearly not right for you.
No one gets to tell you how to live your life. You're the one living it. You should be happy. Life is short, but you've also got the time to make your own decisions.
