Planning for the future is just a first-grade journal away

One weekend while I was home, rooting through my closet — or as I like to call it, “the… One weekend while I was home, rooting through my closet — or as I like to call it, “the black hole” — a small, cream-colored notebook caught my eye. After a cursory glance I quickly realized what it was: my first-grade journal.

In these journals, my classmates and I would write weekly entries that were submitted to our teacher so she could read them and write comments back to us. In one particular entry, I discussed what I wanted to be when I grew up. In the course of a few short sentences I went from wanting to be a doctor, to wanting to be an astronaut, to wanting to be the President of the United States, to, finally, wanting to be a dentist so I could seek revenge on my own dentist.

Like most little kids, I saw endless possibilities. And although such a whimsical train of thought wouldn’t be appropriate for a college student, I believe that we can all learn something from our younger selves: we have options, the future is unpredictable and it’s all right to change our minds.

Since my college career is rounding out and the post-college world is coming sooner rather than later, my peers and I have obviously been discussing what we hope the future holds for us. What I’ve noticed is that some people seem to have it all figured out. Their speculations are replaced with conclusions and their “maybes” are replaced with “definitelys.”

For example, over the summer I took a course to prepare me for a test I’ll be taking this fall. The instructor asked us to go around the room and say what we hoped we would become in the next few years. One girl confidently told us that after she graduates she plans to work for an accounting firm for one year, and then attend law school at Pepperdine University. Following her graduation from law school she plans to work as a corporate lawyer for a big firm in Zurich, Switzerland. Is it just me, or does this seem like quite a mouthful for a girl who has yet to graduate from college?

People like her used to intimidate me. Their strong drive and their seemingly insurmountable confidence made me question my own plans about my future. I often worried that I was a step behind just because I didn’t have each element of my future perfectly mapped out.

What helped me to get over this anxiety was remembering an old quote: “He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.” Although it can probably never be known for sure, I speculate that most of the people who talk such a big game are simply compensating for an underlying insecurity with themselves. When listening to these people I often want to interrupt and say, “What are you trying to prove?”

As college students, while it’s important, if not necessary, to have a direction, there’s nothing wrong with not knowing exactly where we’ll end up in five years. I consider unpredictability to be one of life’s greatest gifts and never knowing what comes next makes life exciting.

Also, for people who are so set on their futures and who consider any deviation from their plan to be out of the question, who knows what previously unforeseen opportunities they could be shutting out? It is only when we are open minded, even if that may mean re-routing from time to time, that we can get the most out of life.

I can recall a couple of girls I’ve talked to who know exactly how long they plan to date a guy before they get engaged, how long the engagement will last, how old they’ll be when they get married, the number of kids they’ll have and the ages they’ll be when having each kid. How can they possibly predict what will be going on in their lives at any one of those given stages? What if some unforeseen event occurs when they’re 29 — the time they plan to have their first kids? Will their entire worlds be in shambles?

I don’t want to seem as though I’m portraying myself as a roll-with-the-punches kind of girl because I’m not. I have dreams, plans and things I’d like to accomplish. But I also consider myself realistic because I know that at any time, anything could happen that could completely throw my plans for a loop.

In the end, we can plan all we want but if the world has something else in mind, the world is probably going to win. Even Outkast told us a couple of years ago that you can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather.

So I’m interested in what will become of these people who seem to have it all figured out. After all, there’s a big difference between saying you’re going to medical school and actually getting in, staying in and graduating. We all know these people can talk the talk, but will they walk the walk? Only the future will tell.

Dear Journal, Anjali is so cute! E-mail her at amn17@pitt.edu.