What's Next?

You graduate high school? Wow that's awesome, what university are you going to? Newlyweds? Aww that's amazing, so when are you guys going to have children? Congratulations, you graduated college? What's next?

What is next is that I start screaming.

How often would you say you ponder the million dollar question? As a kid you can't help counting the days until you become an adult and all the possibilities are laid out in front of you. But once you become that adult, technically at least—in my head I am a 22-year-old teenager—the more you plead for the clock to stop. While it's pretty much a guarantee that your plans change and you are not going to be the astronaut your 6-year-old self thought you would be, I would say plans are a helpful outline. A broad prospect of a career choice, and location to set roots is a good start. My only problem is that both of those are not where I currently work nor live. But we're not talking about me right now, let's talk about you!

If you have yet to come up with a plan for your future, I would say start with location. Only because it is not so invasively personal and can affect your overall state of happiness the way career can. What seasons do you like? Do you want to live near a beach? How well can you handle colder weather? Location is also easier to calculate given there are countless statistics and Zillow deep-dives you can swim in. However, unavoidable factors tend to throw a wrench in whatever plan you manage to conduct. Though important, factors that are in the laps of the gods are things that are out of your control. The current unemployment rate. Inconceivable rent rates. AI coming for all of our jobs. Climate change, things like that. Screws that throw wrenches in the plan you've set.

Its usually the basis for most tv shows; a sassy waitress moves to the big city, looking to make her dreams come true. A broke college graduate who lives with his three roommates wake up to find a newborn baby on his doorstep. Though the latter is a bit more unrealistic, it is nice to see representation on TV. Whenever I start to stress about whatever socioeconomic issue that plagues the country that week, I like when I see TV show characters who also stress about their life plans. And usually about the same things. Sex and the City relationship problems are still more than relevant today, except worse because we have extensive layers of social media blubber now. Friends career whirlwinds are still going strong in todays employment rates, except at least they had a rent-controlled giant NYC apartment. But once you see you are not the only one worrying about your future, ironically even though they are fictional characters, it manages to ease the weight a little. It also helps to have actual friends who are going through the same thing, except when comparison is the thief of all joy. It's a rough watch when you see people with free will that's free willier than yours. I have a friend who is backpacking through Spain and I hope she can feel my envious typing as she reads this. I adore her and have always thought she utilizes free will the right way—she lives in the moment.

It is a bit hard to live in the moment when society around you is constantly waiting for the next thing. Subconsciously I fear we all do it, the 9-5'ers anxiously wait for the clock to strike five, then we wait in unbearable lengths of traffic to just get home and lie down. We wait for the weekend, we wait for our summer vacation, we wait for a text back, we wait for a job interview, we wait and wait and wait. But so much can be done in the waiting. I am a graduate now, I am enjoying being a graduate—i.e. enjoying not having to check Canvas every thirty seconds. I am enjoying the free time I have now before the next phase of my life begins. I enjoy my great friends and my family, I enjoy my working limbs, I enjoy the roof above my head.

What's next is I live for the now and people stop asking that question :)