In today’s world, there is a certain way adulthood is to be approached. If you’re “smart” about it, as soon as you graduate high school, you pick a career at the age of 18, and then spend the next four years in college learning all you can about your chosen field of study. Then, once you’ve graduated college in four years or less {IT CANNOT BE MORE THAN FOUR YEARS!}, you are to immediately find a job in said field, spending the next 40 to 50 years working and advancing in your field of study. Along the way, you also should have found a mate, produced 2.5 children, and bought a house in a quiet neighbourhood all while possessing many leather bound books that make your office smell of rich mahogany . It’s really all very simple. Except when it’s not…
I don’t hide the fact that I’ve never been to college. College wasn’t for me, and I knew that. Does that allow others to look upon me and my qualifications in a more negative light? Sometimes. Do I regret not attending some institution where higher learning was made available? Nope. Is my opinion slanted in support of those who prefer to take the time to figure out who they are as a person rather than blindly commit to a life in which they will be unhappy? Without question. I understand that some folks know what they want and who they want to be from an early age. But what about the rest of us? What about those square pegs that don’t fit in society’s round holes? Why must they be discounted simply because they’ve found a reason to breathe, and have taken their time in finding their own way through life?
I’ve said all of that to lead to this: don’t let someone else tell you what type of life you should be leading. There isn’t some massive scoreboard that says you have to be at this point in your life by this age, or you have to have this accomplished by this point in life. That’s just crap! Just because those around me seem to have found their way quicker than I have does not mean that I am falling behind. We each have our own path. If you don’t want to go to college immediately, don’t. If you’d rather work for a few years to figure out who you are and what you want out of this life, then do that. Ultimately, it’s your life to lead. Be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and do it on your own timetable.
But I hear you asking, “how long will it take”?
That’s really what most of us want to know. “How long will this take?”
How long will it take to get ‘the’ job?
How long will it take to experience creative freedom?
How long will this take to become a success?
Unfortunately, the news I have to share isn’t easy to swallow. . . just when you think you can see the ‘finish line,’ you realize it’s not a race you’re running at all. Life's a journey, not a destination. The secret is not to give up when you think you should have been done by now. {The moment when you desperately want to stop is when you’ll look back and see the break through that changed everything.}
Who am I to offer life advice? No-one really. But since I’m about halfway through my life I’ve started to realize that in the end, we all must continue to trust in the one who has chosen our path for us. In Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (NIV) it says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Only we can decide what will make us happy, and what will fulfill us to the point of contentment.
Find your path, follow HIS way; you’ll be glad you did. I know I am!
Blessings
1 comments:
I didn't attend college either and am surprised now, looking back how so much of what we need to know is learned through life lessons and being diligent to do what needs doing. Obviously we need our professionals, but we each have our place to be.
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