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girl with arms open in nature
girl with arms open in nature
Celina Timmerman / Her Campus
Life

Arnold Palmer

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

To anybody who clicked on this article to talk about golf, sorry to disappoint but that is not what we are here for.

I am prone to looking to the future. It’s not set in stone, and I have no idea what it looks like, but I look at it all the time. There’s so much that can happen in such a short amount of time, and the fact that I have no control over most of it terrifies me. But me being me, of course, I have a backup plan… and a backup to the backup.

There is one major goal in life for me. I want to have the family that I didn’t have growing up. I want a life with adventure, vacations, a stupid little picket fence, and a tire swing on a big oak tree in the front yard. I want to be able to not live a routine that barely gets me by, and I truly think that isn’t too much to ask for. I put the work in for what I want, and I firmly believe that what is worked for is earned.

But what about when it isn’t?

There lingers the thoughts that maybe I won’t graduate. Maybe I don’t meet the love of my life, or hell, maybe I do but then there is some other driving force that sweeps them away. Maybe I can’t conceive, or maybe I’m stuck in that loop of repetition that makes me dread waking up to face it again.

Or what about the other side of everything I want?

I also want to spend my life traveling. A few close friends, no children of my own, surprise visits back home, and a glass of wine on a balcony in Paris also sounds like a dream.

I’ve talked to so many women in my life who all say they had to make sacrifices to obtain both sides of what I want. But what I want is balance. I want to do it all, but unfortunately, that’s not always possible. So now, where do I go?

This fork in the road is one that I’ve been looking at forever. What would happen if I just continued to walk straight?

That is uncertainty wrapped with the most obnoxious bow of anxiety. To pick, not a path, but to walk straight into the tree line, moving only to avoid immediate obstacles.

Well here’s the thing. If I continue to walk straight, my kids will have everything they need. I will have a partner that loves me, once I figure out how I want to be loved. I will have my damn tire swing, for my OWN use. I will enjoy exotic vacations, alone, with a friend, with a partner, and later on with a family. I will have my balance.

Whatever I have in store for me, whatever the world has in store for me, is exactly what I want. I will end up with the perfect balance of both sides. It’s not manifesting the future, because this is already happening. I am EXACTLY where I want to be in life, even if I can’t see the whole picture right now. I am already an ice-cold Arnold Palmer. The right amount of tea, the right amount of lemonade. I even have a little umbrella and a bendy straw.

Taylor Kidwell is a first-year member of Her Campus at St. Bonaventure University. She is from Southern Maryland and looking forward to her first year as a part of the Her Campus community. Taylor plans to write about many topics including literature, movies, and self-care. Taylor is a freshman at St. Bonaventure, majoring in Literary Publishing and Editing. She has published poems and hopes to one day own a publishing house. Until then you'll find her at St. Bonaventure, continuing to work for the life she's dreamt of since she was little. Outside of school, Taylor enjoys photography, reading, and hanging out with her friends. When hockey season comes around, you'll probably find her rooting for her favorite team, the Washington Capitals. Taylor's favorite books include "The Great Gatsby" and "Freak the Mighty". Her favorite music artists are bands like Set It Off, Peirce the Veil, and Limp Bizkit, who she saw in concert over the summer.