Not How I Planned

Everyone always tells you that however you plan your life to be, it will never follow that exact plan.

All growing up, I went through several life plans. I remember that the first time anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up was at kindergarten graduation. We had to draw pictures and then give them to our parents. I drew a picture of a police officer, because that was what my grandpa was. 

As I went through grade school, I was going to be an artist, like my dad.

In Jr. High, I wanted to be a forensic investigator, until 9th grade, when they take you into the counselors office and say "from here on out, what classes you choose to take will affect your career in the future". I had to really plan on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I decided to go into history, because it was the field that interested me the most. 

High school was spent deciding what I wanted to do with history. At times, I wanted to be an archaeologist, others, a museum director or curator. Then I wanted to work for art museums restoring paintings and artifacts. Then I wanted to be an anthropologist. Besides a brief flirtation with the idea of becoming an oceanographer, I knew that anything involving history was what I wanted in life. 

My senior year, I got serious. A history teacher. Yes, I wanted to teach and educate young minds and open their eyes to what the world was like. 

My first year of college, I mapped out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, not just my higher education. I had it all figured out. My life plan went something like this:

1. Move out at 18, live with roommates.

2. Go to school, date lots of guys, but none too seriously. Focus on school as first priority

3. Go on a study abroad to Sweden

4. Graduate college with a degree in History Education by 22 at the latest.

5. Get a job teaching at a high school, possibly working summers as an archeological cataloger

6. Make enough money that I can move into my own apartment.

7. Travel a LOT! Visit everywhere I have dreamed of before I "settle down"

8. Find a nice boy, fall in love, get married by 24

9. Wait 3 years to have kids (I want some uninterrupted fun with my husband for a few years)

10. Have kids at 27-28, but be a "working mom" Having a career is important...

I was so sure that my life was going to pan out like this. School and a career were going to be my main focus in life and a husband and kids were just icing on the cake. But, just like all those people said, my life panned out nothing like I had thought. It went more like this:

1. Graduate High school, travel to Italy and France

2. Get pneumonia, be hospitalized during first semester of school's finals week, which caused me to fail all my classes, set me back a semester. 

3. Continue to live with parents the rest of that first year while I recover from pneumonia.

4. Finally move out! 

5. Met a nice boy, fell in love.

6. Get engaged at 21

7. Get married to the man of my dreams

8. Take the next semester off of school.

9. Go back to school, get told my math has "expired" and I have to re-take it. ALL of it.

10. Decide that even though we cant afford it, even though we were still in school, even though we were living in my parents basement apartment, we had our daughter anxiously waiting to join our family, and decide to get pregnant.

11. Being heavily pregnant, I decide to go to school part time, online.

12. Just shy of our 2 year anniversary, we bring Savannah into the world, and couldn't be happier.

13. Officially decide to change my major to Political Science

14. Celebrate my 24th birthday. Still in school, married, a mother, majoring in political science, and realizing that 24 was when I was going to start my life. 

What was I thinking?

My priorities have completely shifted. My education is still a priority. But loving my husband and being a good mother are now the most important aspects of my life. I no longer want to be a "working mom" a "career woman." History is still a passion of mine, and I will work to help support my family if needs be, like right now, but I hope someday to get to the point where I can be a stay-at-home mom. Be there to teach, care for and nurture my children.

So what if I'm 24 and havent graduated college yet? So what if I married young, had Savannah young? So what if I didn't get a chance to live on my own, travel as much as I wanted, am working at a bookstore instead of a school?

So what? I'm happy with my life and how it panned out.

So far, it's the best life I could have ever imagined.