After you complete a couple of semesters of college, you slowly start to gain an idea of what you want in life and begin to ask yourself the question, “What do I want to do after graduation?” For me, personally, I have always wanted to attend law school; however, I also have had other interests. Throughout my years here at Kenyon, I have always stuck to the law school plan, but have kept my options open. I am the type of person who always has a plan a, plan b, and most of the time, even a plan c. If law school were not to work out, I know what careers I would be perfectly happy having. I have found lots of positive reactions to always being the type A planner that I am, but I also have received many negative reactions. My goals and how I spend my time in college are not always what adults or people my age think my college experience should be.
I would rather stay in and catch up on work so that I can ensure I make good grades to hopefully get into law school, than go out and party. I had a great time going to parties my freshman and sophomore year, but I now find myself often feeling like I am over the party scene. I have had my fun. Quite often when I run into adults I know, they ask about my social life and plans. I tell them I do not go out partying often and that I am really focused on my plans and what I want in life. However, I often hear back, “You’re only young once,” or “Stop growing up so fast.” I personally think this is ridiculous. At the end of the day, it is not their life: it is mine. Everyone is different. I am in a sorority and many of my friends go out most weekends. I do not view them going out often in any negative way, just as they do not judge me for deciding to stay in.
I have a plan on what I want out of life and what I picture as a “happy life.” I want lots of dogs, a husband, three or four kids, and to move into a big house in the south. Honestly, I am really looking forward to one day, hopefully, having these things. I hope to be able to travel, help those I love financially if they need it, and to be able to provide my children with every opportunity possible. Sometimes when I mention this to people at Kenyon, they look at me like I am crazy. The reality for me is that come June 2020, I will have received all that I will get from my parents. They have helped me this far, but the rest is up to me. If I want to accomplish my goals, I am fully aware that I will not be aided in the same way that other Kenyon students are. In no way do I think it is bad that many of my peers have lots of financial help available, I am happy for them. However, my reality is different, so in order for me to gain the lifestyle that many of my peers have, I am going to have to do some extra work in order to get there. I always joke that one day, I hope that I can pay the roughly $69,000 in full tuition for my kids to attend Kenyon.
Family is important to me, my current family and future family. For me, if you do not have family, you have nothing. I feel that, just like popular ideas of what one’s college experience should look like, people also have an opinion on what your twenties should look like. For me, I hope to be married to my partner, own a house, and have kids before I am thirty. When the time is right, and hopefully I am settled in my career, that is what I would like to happen. I know what I want and who I want it with. I have already figured out what I want. I do not need to explore.
The vast majority of my friends are happy for life to take them where it may. I admire this and wholeheartedly support my friends in whatever life path and life choices they decide to make after graduation. At the end of the day, all that should matter is that I am happy and that they are happy. I know, for myself, that the crazy twenties of bar hopping is not my scene. I would not be happy if I did what so many people think I should do in my twenties. Instead, rather than choose to be unhappy in my twenties by spending a future that others think I should have, I have chosen to just be labeled as “growing up to fast.” Sometimes things in life make you grow up faster than others and you are left with an older and more mature version of yourself. I cannot help that I am who I am, or that my story is what it is, just as others are who they are and cannot change their story. Rather than telling others who we think that they should be, we should instead encourage them and respect their vision of the future. We are all unique in our own way, which is the beauty of life itself.