Life is moving fast. Maybe a little too fast.
One minute you’re begging your parents for a ride to the mall, and the next you’re staring at your college schedule, wondering how “Intro to Something I Thought Would Be Easy” snuck in there. Somewhere along the way, society decided we should already have life plans carved in stone. Five-year plan? Ten-year plan? I’m still figuring out the plan.
Academic Aprehension
If I had a dime for every time someone asked me, “So what’s your plan in life?” I’d be paying my tuition in bags of coins. And honestly? The answer changes every day.
When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher like my aunts. Later, I was convinced I’d work with animals. I even interned at an emergency vet clinic and got accepted into K-State’s Veterinary College. But then, one senior-year psychology class derailed that, and suddenly I was at KU declaring a psych major. Then, I added a history minor (because being a museum curator sounded fun). Then law and society (because… law school??). Choosing a major hasn’t been about narrowing myself down. It’s been about finding a way to carry all those interests forward in different forms.
The real kicker? I still like all those old dreams. I wasn’t “crazy” for wanting them. They made sense for who I was at the time. The problem is, college isn’t built for people who want to do everything. It’s like being told to choose one flavor of ice cream for the rest of your life, which would be a horrible feeling. And while society applauds the people who “always knew what they wanted to be,” there are some who are trying not to freak out while filling out their “future career goals” on applications.
Occupational Obligations
As if academic decisions weren’t stressful enough, the next big question comes in hot: “So, what job are you going to get with that?” which translates to: “Convince me your degree isn’t a waste of money.”
Here’s the problem: jobs demand “experience.” But how do you get experience without first being hired? It’s like trying to get into a gym where the only requirement is already being fit. I’ve seen job listings asking for “entry-level” candidates with three to five years of experience. But if I had five years of experience, I wouldn’t be applying for the entry-level job…
It creates this never-ending cycle of unpaid internships, side hustles, and resume-padding hobbies that feel like every sport combined into one. And even with actual experience under your belt, the job market has a way of making you feel like you should’ve started working full-time at age twelve.
Life Loads
And then there’s everything outside of school and work: life itself. As a twenty-year-old, I am on all sorts of social media. There, it feels like everyone is on fast-forward. Engaged. Married. Pregnant. Some people my age already have two kids and a house. Right now, I am taking care of the family dog and already having a hard time juggling everyone’s needs.
The thing is, I don’t feel behind. But it does feel like I’m running a completely different race. Marriage? Kids? A mortgage? Maybe someday. But right now, I want to live a hundred different lives first. New York for the energy, Salzburg for the scenery, maybe Tokyo for the chaos. There’s so much to do in so little time.
The pressure is real, though. Sometimes, it feels like society gives you this checklist: degree, job, marriage, house, kids. And if you’re not ticking boxes on schedule, you start to wonder if you’re failing. But maybe the checklist isn’t the problem, maybe it’s the fact that life isn’t supposed to be lived on autopilot.
A Solution?
Sometimes I picture my life like a multiverse. One universe, I’m a teacher grading papers, in another, I’m in scrubs at a vet clinic. There’s one where I’m arguing cases in court, and another that has me running through a museum pointing at artifacts. They’re all me, and none of them feels wrong.
The truth is, life doesn’t follow a single script. It’s there, and then over there. It takes detours, and sometimes the directions are thrown out the window entirely. Maybe that’s the beauty of it: we’re not stuck in one version of ourselves. We’re allowed to pivot, explore, fail, restart, and create new versions as we go.
So yes, life is moving fast. Maybe too fast. But if the ride is this unpredictable, maybe the best we can do is take the detours and remember that even if we don’t have all the answers, we’re still in the story.