This is a sponsored feature. All opinions are 100% from Her Campus.
Mapping out the next ‘X’ years of your life can seem daunting. When people ask, ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?’ it can seem impossible to figure out how to answer that question. But if you break your plans down into smaller pieces, mapping out your future can be that much more manageable—and even fun!
That’s why we’ve teamed up with Merck to provide you with pretty much everything you could possibly need to map out a plan for what’s up next for you. As part of the planning process, we encourage collegiettes to ask yourselves what potential roadblocks might come up that could interfere with those plans. Throughout your planning, it’s important to consider everything from internship or job application deadlines to financial considerations like student loans, while keeping healthy lifestyle choices in mind, too. Things like eating well, sleeping, exercising, and visiting your doctor are important in order to keep all the other stuff—academic, career, etc.—on track. Another consideration to think about is whether your plan might include birth control options that don’t have to be taken every day, which is something to speak with your doctors about to explore the options.
Part of your plan should also include understanding how to prevent an unplanned pregnancy if you’re not looking to start a family in the immediate future. It’s important to think about how an unplanned pregnancy could potentially alter the plans you’ve made for yourself, and to take steps to ensure you’ll be able to stick to the plan you’ve laid out.
But how do you actually go about doing all of that? We’ve got step-by-step instructions you can use to map out your plan.
We’ve also got the latest on unplanned pregnancies among young women for you to consider–and the stats may surprise you.
So if you feel like you’re ready to take the next step and start planning for your future, head over to our Plan It Forward section and start exploring, so you can be smart about your health and your life plan discover the choices that are going to be right for you.