You know those people who seem to have their entire lives mapped out? I used to be one of them. I had a plan for everything. What I wanted to study, the internships I would take, and even what kind of job I hoped to have after graduation. I liked the comfort of structure, the feeling that I was in control of what came next. But somewhere along the way, I realized that even with all that planning, I do not actually know what the future looks like. I have started to ask myself what would happen if something does not work out the way I thought it would. What if my perfect plan falls apart? What if the path I imagined turns into something else entirely?
College is full of people who seem to have everything figured out. They know their goals, their timelines, their five-year plans. They talk about it with certainty, and it can make you feel like you are behind if you are not doing the same. But I think there is something brave about admitting that you do not know exactly where you are going.
Uncertainty used to scare me. It still does sometimes. There is pressure to always have an answer ready when someone asks about your future. You do not want to sound lost, so you say what sounds right, even if you are still unsure. But pretending to know does not make things any clearer. It only hides the truth that most of us are still trying to figure it out as we go.
I have learned that not knowing can actually be a kind of freedom. It means there is room for change, for discovery, for growth. It means you are open to the idea that life might turn out differently than you planned, and that it might even be better that way. When you stop gripping so tightly to what you think should happen, you leave space for things you could not have imagined to take shape.
As someone who has always been a planner, letting go of that control has not been easy. I still find myself making lists and timelines, still trying to hold on to the illusion that everything will go exactly as I expect. But I am also learning to let uncertainty sit beside me instead of fighting it. Maybe the next step is not about knowing every detail. Maybe it is about trusting that even if something does not work, I will still be okay.
There will always be people who seem certain, who speak as if their paths are already set. But life changes. Plans shift. Dreams evolve. And sometimes the most meaningful things come from moments of complete unpredictability.
Maybe the point is not to have every answer, but to live the question. To accept that not knowing is not failure. It is the space where growth begins.