Last week, we announced the winner of the Rushed contest for Tia Love’s campus women’s group, Women Rushed into Womanhood. LaDonna Carter was chosen as the winner after she submitted a story about a situation she was rushed into.
Here’s LaDonna’s story:
High Standards
When we are children we make plans for our own lives. At this point is where we establish our standards. A child is not aware of this event, of course. Therefore, as we grow up and actually experience life, we tend to develop new standards if any at all. Our values, or standards and goals in life make all the difference of how our lives will turn out.
I set several unanticipated standards as a child and most of them stuck with me. My main goals were to be successful, live in a big house, take care of my children, not be just a “baby-mama”– but a wife, and have a good man that has the same standards as myself or higher. I had planned not to have kids until I was financially stable. Having a child was not apart of my plan.
Over the past year my standards remain the same but my plans have changed. I am on the road to success, I live in an apartment that is clean and meet my standards, and I love to care for my 8-month-old son. I am engaged and soon to be married. My fiancé loves his family as I do and works hard to achieve his goals. However, my plan to not have children before I was financially stabled changed.
What I have learned this year is that standards we set for ourselves remain unchanged because they are in our hearts and engrained in our brains. We live our lives around our standards whether they are high or low. So if we purposely set standards for ourselves it would be much easier to live for something. Plans are called plans because they are subject to change. Plans are short-term but standards we set for out lives are life-long.