In my Google docs, I have a document that says life plan. it details my life in about 3 bullet points per year through 2022 at which point it says "work until I die lmao." Ever since a month ago, when I was granted access to the course catalogs at my college, I've created multiple versions of schedules of my next four years. Right now at the time of writing, as an author at Odyssey, I have written way too many articles in advance in only my first week so, naturally, I have created a spreadsheet in which I am planning on which articles to publish which week. I have planned and written all the way through my first week of classes in the fall. I am a planner and if you're like me your friends are wondering why are you doing this and if you're not, you clicked on this article because you know someone like this and you are genuinely concerned.
Imagine living in an Orwellian dystopian utopia where all your actions are planned out by Big Brother or the theocracy in Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale." The suppression would be suffocating enough to drive even the most tame free spirit mad. Now imagine having a choice. Venus spins backwards. You can apply to any college you want. Your class catalog is ready for you to plan classes. You can be anything you want when you grow up. For me and for all the planners out there, these statements all strike terror into our hearts by illustrating the vast choices we have and the unpredictable, inexplicable nature of the universe. But it's not only the offering of choices; it's the lack of them.
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I can't control what other drivers do on the road. I can't force other people not to steal from me. The only person I can control is myself. I have all the choices in the world but so does everyone else. In a world where anything can happen in a matter of seconds, planners like me rejoice in the illusion of maintaining control over our lives.
