I have had a strange relationship with plans over the years. But recently, I decided to stop making major plans. Here are some reasons why.

In high school, my plan was to go to a big, top-notch, Ivy or baby Ivy League school. I wanted to go to school in the heart of a city. I was going to major in a STEM or field, land a job at a company to pay for my graduate education, and come out of graduate school with a high-paying job in one of those fields.

But I started hating my STEM classes in high school. I did relatively well in all of them, (and I graduated with a 3.98 G.P.A. in all such classes,) but I hated them. I could not see myself spending the rest of my life in a STEM field. Doing business irked me to my core because I hated the idea that I would be working specifically to manipulate people's money. I couldn't bring myself to be passionate about that either. So instead of applying to STEM-heavy schools, I began applying to liberal arts schools.

Then, I got into Ithaca College on a massive scholarship. Ithaca is a top-notch institution in its own right, but it's not a big-name school. In fact, when I committed, most people asked, "Oh, so Cornell, right?" Wrong, suckers. Bombers over Bears every day.

I debated heavily between Ithaca, Boston University, and New York University. I would be paying twice the amount of money to attend the latter two institutions than I would at Ithaca, but I was set on going to Boston because I wanted to go to a big-name school. I expected this from myself, and my entire class expected it from me, too. I felt almost ashamed at the thought of going to Ithaca because it wasn't one of the big-boy schools.

But then I visited Ithaca, and I fell in love. It wasn't in the heart of a city like NYU or BU. It was a cozy little institution on a hill. And unlike NYU or BU, I felt at home. I felt like it was an institution where I could be successful. I was smitten by the people, the faculty, the location. I swear I fell in love, head over heals.

So I even though I never planned on moving to the Arctic, I did. And I couldn't have made a better decision for myself.

But even when I got here, I had deluded ideas of what I thought I wanted to do. I came in as an Integrated Marketing Communications major. I thought, I'm going to complete my undergraduate education in this major, get an M.B.A, land a job at a multi-million dollar corporation, and make bank. I was going to remain celibate in college, get a man by 25, and have 2 kids by 30.

But then I hated my major. I hated my classes and the thought of doing that stuff for the rest of my life. I hated the idea of working at a corporation. But I chose that route because I thought it was safe.

But then, I asked myself, how much of my happiness am I willing to sacrifice to be safe? The only thing that got my engines running was politics. My International Relations class changed my life. (Thanks, Chip.) It showed me that what I wanted to do wasn't figuring out different ways to get people to spend money for my benefit. It was being part of a system that would allow me to create change, as broken as that system may be. I wanted to solve problems, not make presentations to present at big, snooty conferences.

I wasn't supposed to be attractive to anyone until I was 25, which is why I was so ardent on remaining celibate until then. There would only be one man for me, only one person that understood me and could love me, only one person, period. He would be the person I married, and that was it. But that changed, too. I went back and forth between deciding if quitting my celibacy was worth it. But I realized that if I denied myself the present, I was denying my very existence by spending too much time thinking about the future. Why did I think that only one person would be capable of being attracted to me? I am attractive. And people should be attracted to me. And people are. And that's okay. I can allow myself this much.

If there's one thing the past 2.5 years have taught me, it is to live in the present moment. If tomorrow is not promised, why waste so much time thinking about it?

I'm not saying I've thrown all my plans out the window. I have goals and objectives. I have dreams and ambitions. But I am trying to stop living in a way so as to reap some kind of reward tomorrow. I have only today as a guarantee; tomorrow may not come.

I'm a person of faith, but I don't think you have to be religious to realize that life has its own plans. You may want to go one way but life may take you in a totally different path. Allow yourself to go as life takes you. You will be more fulfilled if you allow yourself to move with the tide than if you try to fight against it.