Twenty Something Advice: Don’t plan your life based on what other people expect
I decided to start a new series called Twenty Something Advice. To start off this series I sent this message to my real life friends – you know the people I have meet face to face.
[rambling introduction to my blog since my friends don't really read it ...]
My ultimate goal for such blog is to have lots of random advice/insights/ideas about the balancing of life that is involved with life in your twenties.
Anyway, the reason I am writing is … I figure what better way to have advice about life than to ask my lovely friends for your advice. So I was thinking if there is any bit of advice that you have learned recently (or not so recently) that you feel like sharing with the world. I’d love for you to write something and send it to me. Some sample ideas – how life has changed now that you’re married, dating at work, how is the whole "job" world different than you expected, how do you manage the whole dinner thing and have a job, budgeting, cooking, relaxation, something that you learned the hard way and wish someone had told you about, anything and everything.
So without further ado here is #1 of hopefully of many Twenty Something Advice columns to come. If you have any brilliant insight you’d like to share feel free to send it over.
This is a guest post by my lovely friend Tarina also known as the bug-lady or travelbug. We went to design school together and she is now a flight attendant.
The biggest thing I’ve learned since leaving college is that what everyone expects you to do, is not necessarily what you should be doing.
For me, leaving college meant getting a graphic design job, working in an office and slogging through the 9-5 grind. It was miserable and I hated it. It never occurred to me till I had gotten fired twice that maybe this whole thing that everyone expected of me wasn’t really ME. Sure I would have made more money, my life would be so much more stable but I was desperately unhappy. Throwing away the expectations and doing something that made me happy has been so much more fulfilling then having stability and money. I also get the gratuitous pleasure of the stories my mom brings back to me of people asking what her daughter has been up to (expecting that trite answer of office work) only to be completely flabbergasted.
So really, the advice I’d give to other people:
Don’t plan your life based on what other people expect, plan your life based on what you want to do with it. Regardless of what people think.
Do what makes you happy rather then what brings in the biggest bucks (glad I learned that early).
And travel. It’s a big world out there and you shouldn’t wait till retirement to see it.
Oh, and don’t be afraid to try new things, especially in the food department. There are so many people I want to hit when we end up in a new country and they turn their nose up at something because it’s not "American". But that’s just one of my general pet peeves *g*
I hope that helps!
I loved the question. Very thought provoking.
