In almost a month I am going to officially be a college graduate. The issue is that I have almost no plan for the five years that come after the diploma. I don’t even have a plan for the next month. So yes, I am just a little bit stressed (cue sarcasm)
When I was a freshman in college, I thought I had it all sorted out. I knew my major, what I was going to do career wise after I graduate, and I was going to be living in my dream apartment in the city. Well, about four years later and I can say that only two of those statements hold true today. I love my major and I know what I’m doing career wise. I’m currently finishing up student teaching and plan to teach English for a few years – part of me can’t see myself doing anything else. But another part of me see’s more than just teaching in a classroom. I’m the type of person that doesn’t work well with a five year plan because I want to do everything: take a gap year, work in higher education, write a book, get my graduate degree, travel the world, start a small business. There are so many versions of me that haven’t been touched on yet.
A five-year plan helps to figure out your goals and lay out how to accomplish them. It keeps you on track and is a motivation factor to those who use these.
Que the scene in Glee where Rachel Berry is going hardcore with her workout at 5 a.m., striving for a Tony. She has her next five – no, 10, years laid out: starting from her intense morning routine to her career moves after high school. That is what I want to be, but I just don’t have it in me. I’ve changed so much in the last five years, and I know I’ll change in the next five years. Is it bad and unprofessional to not have my next five years, in a time where I’m going to be significantly changing, laid out?
“There are so many versions of me that haven’t been touched on yet.”
So many of us think about our career when we hear “five-year plan.” As a undergrad senior, that’s scary. We work so tirelessly for four years, excited for the moment we get our diploma, but after? That’s a different story. We have the whole world for us to explore! We have a degree! We can get a job. Why is that so scary? Does a five-year plan necessarily have to just be about your career? What about my social life? Myself as an individual? Okay, maybe I’m a bit lost on that, too – but shouldn’t fresh graduates be? I mean, here we are, diploma in hand and thrust into “adulting.” Are any graduates truly ready?
If I absolutely need a five-year plan, here it is: teaching, graduate student, living in my own apartment, having traveled a bit more, and hopefully with the man of my dreams (because a girl can dream, right?) But that’s it. Because who knows who I’ll be and the life I want to live in even a month from now.