As we near the end of the year, it can be tempting to look back and come to the conclusion that we haven't really accomplished much and that, as a result, we have wasted the year.

To which I respond, "Bullcrap."

While a year can feel like a really long time, it goes by pretty quickly. And before you know it, you are older than you thought you would be and not as far along in life as you thought you would be.

We live in a society that romanticizes young people doing great things. And it's great that young people do great things. But you may feel judged or forgotten by a society which overemphasizes having your life figured out when you are young, especially if your timing is not the same as others' timing.

But others' lives are not ours. We all come from different backgrounds, have different experiences, and are on different paths. We should not be in the same place in life as others, even people our own age. We each have different responsibilities to fulfill and lives to live. We each have different purposes.

As a Christian, I have a clear purpose in life: to bring glory to God and spread the Gospel. But beyond that, I am basically making my life up as I go. I try to plan ahead as much as possible but with the knowledge that my plans may not happen, or that they may not happen how I want or when I want because God is ultimately in control of what happens. But things don't have to happen when I think they should in order to be good and wonderful. It is my responsibility to do what is right when it is right, and God will work out the rest.

You don't have to have everything figured out or know where you are going. From what I have heard, most people don't know what they want to do with their lives. My dad will say stuff like "I don't know what I want to do when I grow up," only half joking. I have heard my friends' parents say that they don't know what they are doing a lot of the time and that they are just making life up as they go along. Which is simultaneously comforting and terrifying.

But not everything in life is going to happen all at once and definitely not before the end of your 20s. Life would be disastrous if every major and minor life change happened all at the same time.