We’ll Figure It Out Eventually, I Promise

I wish we could live and bask forever in the days where people would still ask what you wanted to be when you grew up. When we were allowed to have dreams we scribbled in notebooks. When we were allowed to say we wanted to be an astronaut one day and then a firefighter the next. And when we were allowed to not have everything figured out.

Now that we can legally drive and smoke and drink and vote, if we don’t have a plan or know what we want to do we get looks of disappointment, pity, and disgust. Why has this become the culture we live in? Since when did we have to have our lives figured out when we’re still trying to figure ourselves out?

When we were younger, if you didn’t know what you wanted to be when you grew up no one was worried. Everyone banked on the notion that in a handful of years we would find that spark in a certain path or a certain career, and we’d run with it. So why can’t we get the same encouragement and inapprehensiveness today that we did when we were our younger pre-pubescent selves?

We are still learning and changing and growing.

Of course we are going to change our minds about what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Of course there are going to be moments where we feel lost and uneasy and unsure. But everyone feels that way at one point or another, and we will figure it out. We will figure it out.

It might take us a month, or it might take us a year (or two), but the rest of our lives is THE REST OF OUR LIVES. It’s difficult and scary to try and decide what we want to be doing every day for forever. Maybe it’s traveling the world. Maybe it’s dropping out of college and pursuing something else. Or maybe it’s becoming an astronaut!!!

So for goodness’ sake, take it easy on us! We are still kids at heart. We are still figuring out this crazy thing called life. Let us scribble in our notebooks our dreams for the future. Let us change our minds. And let us make mistakes.

We will figure it out. I promise.