When Everyone Is Moving On With Their Lives And You Don’t Know What To Do With Yours

Have you ever felt like life has been overwhelming and confusing at the same time? Your friends are starting to get hired, your little sister is going to college, your cousin is getting married. Everyone is moving on with their lives, what are you supposed to do with yours? You’re graduating in a few months, and the only thing that you are certain of is that a big adjustment will be done and shall be practiced sooner or later. Your friends have been getting jobs, what will yours in the future be like? It’s not that you are envious.

In fact, you couldn’t be any prouder of them and you would like to give them each a hug and say, “Great job! I know the company you just got in made a good decision hiring you. You earned it! I know you’ll do well!”, but uttering those words will make you think twice about your life. Graduation in a few months? Crazy. Exciting. Scary. All at the same time. You begin asking yourself questions you’ve never asked yourself before.

What is life supposed to look like after graduation? What’s next for me? What if I don’t do well as expected? What if I turn out to be such a failure? What if I don’t land my dream job? What if I become unhappy in life? What if I don’t make my parents proud? What if I don’t make the right decisions?

Planning for life was way easier when we were younger. The thought that one day, we would all land our dream jobs and live in a beautiful house with cute mattresses and wallpapers and a pool big enough for our future children to fit in, didn’t seem like a bad idea. It was that simple. At one point or another, we all thought that life would automatically give us what we had in our minds. And little by little, we learn that life doesn’t owe us anything.

The universe doesn’t simply give us the things we want just because we crave them. We work for them, and if the heavens permit, we are rewarded. And maybe that is what’s scary. The thought that we might not be able to execute things the way we planned them when we were little. The thought that life might not work out the way we have always planned and wanted it to.

So many what ifs, so many questions. Everything seems overwhelming, and you have no idea on what to do first or where to go next. Sure, we have the choice to do this and that, but what if you opt to do this, that you don’t get to do THAT anymore? What if choosing something would mean dropping something else? And what if the one you dropped turns out to be actually better than the one you chose?

We can ask as many questions as we want, but deep down, the answers are in our hearts. They can be found within.

What if I don’t do well as expected? I will accept that all human beings have flaws and I am no exception to that, but I wouldn’t let that fact get the best of me. I will find a way to be better until I can finally do as well as I am expected. What if I don’t land my dream job? I probably won’t, or I probably will.

Asking won’t help, but working for that job will. What if I become unhappy in life? Whatever it is that would cause unhappiness in my life, I know that I brought that up on me. And I probably don’t deserve it, but I also wouldn’t let it stay that way. I can whine on it all I want, or I can decide to throw it away, and choose happiness for as long as I know how to.

I get it. You’re scared. In four words: the pressure is on. I would like to think that this is something that everyone goes through at one point or another. It’s easy to imagine things and have hope on a beautiful day, but on days when you feel like you aren’t capable of something or on days when you just feel lost, know that sometimes it is okay to feel that way. Know that you are not alone. Maybe being lost is a good thing, so you will appreciate it when you finally find your way back. And you will, if you tell yourself to be positive.

If you acknowledge the fact that you have the choice to choose every day and that you will make good and bad choices, and these choices will take you where you’re supposed to be. If only you believe that you won’t be lost forever. I guess the bottom line is that things probably won’t come easy, but they will be worth it. They should be. With big challenges come big growth, and that will be priceless. You are priceless.