The holiday season is quickly approaching and with that comes family get-togethers...and with that comes questions. A lot of them. The kind that make you cringe and want to bury yourself in the snow.

“How is school going?”

“What are you studying again?”

“What do you plan on doing with that degree?”

“What are your plans for after graduation?”

*Pours glass of wine*

I’ve tried to do everything right in life so far. I received decent grades in high school, went onto university with a scholarship, and now I am on my way to graduating next spring. I’ve landed two jobs within my potential future career field and have been gaining some awesome experiences. I’ve been doing everything by the book…yet sometimes, I feel like I’ve missed something.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this. I don’t know why I feel this way. I have great friends, I enjoy what I’m studying, and I look forward to graduating. But honestly? I have no exact idea what I want to do after graduation. I am going to be losing my “title” that I have had since I was four years old. I have been a student for the past seventeen years of my life and pretty soon that is going to be stripped away. It’s almost scary. I’m not sure that I know how to not be a student.

So what am I going to do then? I have some thoughts and ideas, but honestly I don’t have a set plan. And I think that’s great. Trying to have a set plan for everything stops what is just meant to be from happening. Maybe I want to write a book (I do), maybe I want to travel a bit. How am I supposed to know where I’m meant to be in life if I only stay in one place? I want to take a leap out of my comfort zone and push myself to my limits.

We are constantly taught to go to school, get a job, and then hopefully one day be able to retire. Work, sleep, and repeat. I don’t want that to be my life. I don’t know exactly what I want to do with my life, but I know that that is not it.

I do know that I want to see the world. I want to experience different cultures and places. I want to be a more understanding person. I want to be able to love unconditionally. I want to be able to help people, in any way that I can. Even by just smiling at them as we pass each other by. I want to make an impact in some sort of way. I want to be inspired, and I want to be inspiring.

I want to live a life full of love and full of journeys. I want to be happy.

I don’t have a set path in life, and that is completely okay.