So let’s back everything up to High School. Sophomore year. I decided I wanted to be a physical therapist. I was going to go to school for 6 years, getting a degree, and traveling the U.S. as a physical therapist for a bit. A year later, I was going to be a language teacher, or a translator. Then I finally realized I did not know what I wanted to do. I still don’t. At this very young stage in life, we were all asked to basically plan the rest of it. We were asked what you wanted to do with your life. And everyone tried as hard as they could to answer the question. Including me.
Derick Sears can barely plan ahead long enough to write this blog, let alone think about the future, but he does the blog just for you.
I believe everyone has something useful to share, so I talked to everyone. Anyone who wanted to could say anything and I would listen. That’s still the way I function, I obtain information mostly narratively by being in people’s lives. This information helped me toy with different plans. I was just trying to answer a question. It’s important to know the right questions to ask. You can ask the right questions now, or continue to ask the wrong ones until it’s too late. I was always wondering, “What am I going to do with my life?” I should have been asking, “What kind of person do I want to be?” “What kind of experiences do I want to have?”
Planning out your life leads to steps. I'm going to go to college so I can get a nice job. Then I can have a nice car, then a nice house, and a wife. Then when I get old, I’ll have all these things around that look nice but, realistically mean very little. Monetary values are insignificant. You work in steps as if there is somewhere you need to be at the end.
Life is not just a series of steps that are a means to an end. Life does not stop for you to get a degree and settle down, and then just pick back up when you’re ready to move on. Your college years are a development period, it’s important that we understand this. College is not a means to an end, it’s a developmental life event, just as every experience in life is. Its also important to note that a specific major does not translate to a specific job. It doesn’t work that way unless you’re a nurse/doctor. College is there to develop you as a person, not to produce an employee.
So live in whatever it is you’re doing. Stop thinking about five years down the road. Stop thinking about five days down the road. We need to live in what we’re doing and look beyond whatever comfort you picture for yourself. No part of your life is a means to an end. It’s all part of the way you grow as a human being. So pay attention to it all.
The troubles of yesterday mask the emptiness of tomorrow
The emptiness of tomorrow is filled with the potential of today.
And today? Today is left,
Cast aside for the wonders of the future and the dwellings of the past
No one ever lives for today.”
Derick Sears can barely plan ahead long enough to write this blog, let alone think about the future, but he does the blog just for you.