360 Degrees: Our Future

The end of our sophomore year is nearing. And with each day, we come closer and closer to our future: college and beyond. And this is something my parents are taking advantage of. Recently, they've been trying to have college talks and talks about possible majors. Well this really doesn't work for me. Why? Because I have no idea; I'm still just a sophomore!

Sure it's good to have plans for the future and have goals, but there are definitely positives and negatives to this.

Positives:
1) Having planned out what you want for the future makes you more motivated to try and reach those goals. If you know what type of school you want to go to, then you will work accordingly in high school to have the necessary means to (hopefully) get into that school. Also, when the time comes and you do have to make decisions, you'll have a general idea of what you do want to be doing and will feel accomplished being ahead of the rest of us.

Negatives:
1) It's good to have an open mind. Sometimes with these goals and plans, you forget that you can in fact change them. It's really about what you want to do, not what you wanted to do when you were five (yes, I suppose that's an exaggeration). If you don't keep an open mind then you won't be able to end up doing what you truly love or discover something that in the end will be what you want to do for the rest of your life.

2) Living in the Now. We're told to live in the moment and have fun while it lasts. So why doesn't this apply now? We should be having fun in our youth. I'd like to think life isn't there for you to waste your time while you're young to plan for when you're old, then do things while you're old, and then sit around while you're even older (at least I hope that's not the case). So how can we live in the moment if all we do is plan for the future?

Sure it's good to have plans-as a matter of fact my schedule for the next two years is planned out, and when I tell people, they laugh. But in a way, it feels good to know what I hope to be doing. But remember not to get bogged down in these plans; there's room for adjustments. We should have goals, but they can change to meet our needs. I guess what I'm saying is, planning can be good, as long as you don't get tied down to the point where you can't budge no matter how hard you try.

Personally, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this year while it lasts and try not to worry about colleges at the moment. But let's face it, I do think about them. And while I can't even get myself to think about what I want to do in the long term, I should realize that within the next two years, I should hope to figure it out. Maybe I won't be so quick to shut down these conversations over time, but maybe at the moment it's because I don't want to be stuck to one decision I make without know what else is out there. Because in the end, I don't want to be jumping around everywhere at the age of 24 still figuring out what I should do, yet I don't want to be close-minded about what's out there right now.