"What are your plans for after college?" is the college kid's least favorite question. This question is usually asked by a grandparent, a frenemy, or that professor you had once in freshman year who barely remembers you and only asked this question to save face. So when it's your turn to respond, you usually take a deep breath, bite the inside of your cheek, and give an answer like "uh, just hang out and see what happens."

Hang out and see what happens?

What does that even mean? Hang out, like you're some sort of beach bum? What did this person want to hear? What kind of answer did this person expect? Probably not that one.

After giving this answer quite a few times myself, I don't think it is such a bad answer. Think about how you were asked the same question when you were 17 and looking into colleges and majors. You had no idea what was going to happen, and any plan that you thought you had is probably entirely different now.

Your teachers, your parents, and your friends may expect you to have it all together, but you don't need to. You don't ever need to because plans don't mean anything. While you may feel like the only one your age who doesn't have the next five years mapped out, just remember that just because someone may think they may have it all figured out, they probably don't. The only plans you should be making are short-term ones like, when you're going to watch the new episode of Girls, or when you and your boyfriend are going to visit that new pizza place.

Goals, however, are different. Goals are good. Plans are bad. For example, a goal would be to become a published author. A plan would be to have a published piece by November 18, 2018. It's pointless and counterproductive to give yourself a deadline for success, and you shouldn't let anyone else do that to you either.

If you are one of those people who need to make plans to stay sane, then just be prepared for those plans to break, because they so often do. But don't let that deter you from reaching your goals.

In my experience, putting forth your best every single day is the only guaranteed way to be successful and happy. If you focus so much on the future, you'll neglect your present self and your current needs, and all of that shapes what is to come.

So when your friends say that they are going to have an established career by age 23, children by 25, and a Golden Retriever puppy and a brand new Range Rover by age 30, you can just look at them and say, "I'm just chillen," and be satisfied, because good things come to those who chill.