Sweet summertime; a perfect, three month span of time allotted to worrying about the rest of your life. OK, maybe this is just a “me” thing, but every summer I find myself sitting on a back porch somewhere, enjoying the peaceful sound of the breeze running its fingers through the trees, just to be interrupted by an overwhelming wave of stress. The first question is always along the lines of, “What are you doing just sitting here? You have so much work to do to achieve your goals.” Shortly after, the same voice whispers, “But what are my goals?”

As a college student (many of you can relate to this), I am constantly asked what my "five-year plan" is. During my freshman year, and half of my sophomore year, I thought I had it all planned out -- I was going to finish school, get married within a year or two of graduating, find a house to settle down in the Pacific Northwest and start having children. It sounded pretty fool-proof, it was an answer most respected and it did not seem to have many negatives. It was one that floated into the air alongside my breath quite effortlessly until the day I said it to myself. No outside party was involved this time when I asked myself, "What is your five-year plan?" To my surprise, everything but the life I had previously imagined popped into my mind.

Rather quickly, I was confusing myself and this became the source of the most stress I have ever felt. My brain rattled with more reasons why I dislike being such an inquisitive young lady. What am I doing? Where am I going? How am I going to get there? I need to start planning it all now, don't I? A few months of this led to an early mid-life crisis spent laying in the grass and staring at the trees overhead for hours everyday. Months went by and my stress levels were at maximum; a self-evaluation was way overdue.

The results of my self-evaluation added confusion to confusion, but this double negative cleared everything up. (That's how math works, right?) I listed the things that make me happy: good people, good food, trees, hammocks, laughter, the gym, family, rock climbing, live music, writing, koala videos, drawing, dad-jokes, traveling and incomplete lists. Then I realized that what made me happy a year ago does not make me happy today, and have accepted that what makes me happy today may not make me happy tomorrow. And I'm OK with this. The goal of a five-year plan is to have an outline of goals to achieve to make you happy, but what if how you are happy is always evolving? I'm also OK with this.

I am a very different variation of the person I was just a year ago. I have changed in more ways than I can even list without losing my train of thought and I am extremely OK with this. Self-evolution is one of the coolest things a human is capable of. One day we can say, "You know, I don't want to live like this anymore," and change everything. Or we could say, "I don't know how I want to live, so I'm just going to take it day by day."

"I don't know," was just a settling answer, in my opinion. I am now a firm believer that it is the strongest answer one can provide. Why? Uncertainty is one of the scariest things that humans possess.

Please, avoid the stress. Not having your life or even your plans for the day figured out is OK. All I ask is that you make sure you are taking care of yourself by making happiness your life outline.