So I was doing some reflective thinking over the weekend. I’m kind of a work-a-holic. That means I never get bored because there is always something to do. I have endless to-do-lists on my computer, on my phone, on Word files. Sometimes items on the list will stay on there forever. Some are just ingrained into my head forever until they are accomplished, you know the usuals – finish college w/ my degree, get married, have a job (the dream job in fact) have kids, buy a house – own a boutique etc etc. But I’m giving myself an expiration date for everything, and I can’t live life that way.

That brought me to a couple questions. At one point, do I stop? Once I’ve done all of those things, what else will I strive for or will my life be so constant that there will be nothing left for me to do?

Now I have two more questions. I’m still young. I decided to compare  myself to people I went to high school with and people I go to college with now (you should never really do that) to see what we all thought we were meant to do in life, and are we doing it? Are we making it happen for us? Or did we just settle?

Responses:

“I imagined myself getting out of my small town and being something rather than sticking in small Kingsport, TN like all my friends and family, basically doing what I feel is best and seeing what else is out there and I believe I have. I’m in Hawaii haha”

“Well, yes and no! I always saw myself being happy with my choices, and I always thought that meant following norms and going to a university and not working (haha). But I’m at a community college and working almost full time and I love where I am. I also saw myself achieving my goal of becoming involved in film for a job, and even though I’m not there yet I’m doing a lot with photography.”

“ok…well I always saw myself being near home, staying close with those friends of mine from back home. I never saw our bond ever breaking because we were so close. I knew I wanted to go to college, but never even thought about a city like Seattle. I wanted to go to school near all of my best friends.

Now, things have definitely changed. My definition of friend is completely different, and it’s hard to see how far I’ve grown from my Oregon friends. I know that it’s normal and I am so tremendously happy with the community of love and support I’ve developed here, but I miss the old way of life sometimes.”

“I always thought I would work in medicine, I thought I was meant to help people get better I’m achieving it in a different way then I thought I would. i feel like i had to “dumb down” my goals, so i switched to community health, which is more like promoting and educating healthcare to people, rather than working in medicine. I know that I cant be what I want to be so I’m trying to be happy with what I can be.”

“Play guitar for a living. And I’m on my way, yes.”