<p>I kind of had an epiphany over the summer. I spent a great deal of time thinking about my future, where I was going to go, what I was going to do and how I was going to get there. Back in high school I thought I had everything figured out, my plan goes as follows:</p>
<p>-Graduate high school
-Blast through college while maintaining good grades with internship and research experience in between years
-Head straight into a top 20 grad school
-Graduate with masters in aero engineering
-Head to big city to work with large company (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman)
-Celebrate my great success</p>
<p>However nothing ever really goes as planned. Im now realizing how futile and ridiculous my plans are, I have no clue as to what is going to happen or how my life going to unfold over the next 5 years. It seems like everyone on CC has the exact same mentality as I used to, just trying to perfect and cement our successful futures. </p>
<p>I used to think that I was going to work with a big company designing aircraft fuselages, although that is still my goal, I know that theres a possibility that a huge company won't hire me and that I might not end up with my perfect job right after I graduate. Sometimes you forgot to just live your life because youre so worried with how your life is going to turn out.</p>
<p>The problem is that many people get what they want, but they never want what they get. Maybe Plattsburgh’s example does own the company by 27 and did marry at 23 and have kids at 25, but when he looks back at what he has is he going to be happy?</p>
<p>You can’t do absolutely no planning. Go that route and you’ll almost certainly end up unhappy. It’s important to have plans and goals in order to stay motivated.</p>
<p>That said, You don’t necessarily need super detailed plans too.</p>
<p>have some basic ideas.
I eventually want to have a family, get my PhD in history, write at least one non-historical book that is reviewed by the NY Times, travel to every MLB ballpark, travel, and see Something Corporate play “Konstantine.” These are highly attainable, and I am not in a rush to get it done.
That is the key I think, life is not a race.</p>
<p>Haha. When I was taking the book part of driver’s ed, I sat next to this homeschooled kid who wanted to be a pilot. He asked me what I wanted to be, and I said I wasn’t really sure (I wasn’t even 16 yet. Sheesh). He replied with, “Well, fortunately, I have my whole life planned out.” He went on to tell me about how he was going to go to the Air Force Academy and fly for the air force, and then retire and work for a commercial airliner. Since he already had his pilot’s license, his plans really weren’t that farfetched, assuming that he could get into the Air Force Academy. It just sounded funny to me for him to say, “I have my whole life planned out.”</p>
<p>Then again, this kid also tucked in his t-shirts and almost knocked his water bottle over when he saw how big my apparently giant biology textbook was. So…</p>
<p>I’m going to major in Economics. For now. I want a job where I don’t work with a bunch of imbeciles, and a little traveling would be nice. That’s about the extent of my plans. I don’t want to commit to something now that I might hate later. And since my college has such ridiculous requirements anyway, I’ll have plenty of time to explore other things. </p>
<p>I could say that I want to work at a bank, but it wouldn’t be entirely true. I might like working at a bank, but I might not. If you had asked me two years ago if I’d like to work for a company that sells cheap imported figurines, I would have said no way. But I love that job now.</p>
<p>So vague plans seem to work the best for me.</p>
<p>That’s not really possible if you have Asian parents like mine. My parents are already looking forward to the day I graduate Dental School (I’m Already in a special program at my school and will be a sophomore),</p>
<p>My dad keeps rambling on about having a ‘Game Plan’ for life. He’s a sucker for detailed planning and that’s how I convinced him to not be anal about me switching to liberal arts. He’s backed off now but I still have a vague idea of what I want. However, at the end of my ‘list of possible options’ it says: some completely unexpected opportunity comes up. After the grad school/get a job step I have no clue what sort of things can happen. We will see, I guess.</p>
<p>It’s good to have a plan, a goal, something to shoot for, and know how to get there. It is equally important to plan what you will do if you don’t meet a certain goal or intermediate milestone. </p>
<p>What I see on CC most frequently is high schoolers planning on going to graduate school before freshman orientation! So many things can change between when you’re 18 and 22.</p>
<p>umm wow that is just creepy. i want a PhD in history as well (hoping to become a history professor) and something corporate is my favorite band (jack’s mannequin is alright too), not too mention konstantine is probably one of their best songs. i’m planning to write a book as well =/. hmmm not much of a baseball fan, one of my teachers a few years ago accomplished that feat, though, of course he is about 60-70ish.</p>
<p>A good plan is a plan that leaves space for adjustments.</p>
<p>I think that its great to have a general idea of what you want to do in the future, but not to have it all planned out because slight changes in the present can really change a person’s future.</p>
<p>You should strike a balance between living in the moment and for the future. Enjoy youth while you still can, but never do anything dumb enough to risk your future. </p>
<p>I see too many kids throw their futures away because they just want to party.</p>
<p>Don’t plan too far ahead. Planning too far ahead often results in the inability to be open-minded. A high school freshman should not be thinking about college yet, let alone grad school (I’ve seen this on CC). A lot changes between 14 and 18 years of age, and even more from 18 to 22 years.</p>
<p>I do agree it is futile to want to have life planned down even to the degree you, original poster, attempt to, and I actually share your sentiment closely as an overenthusiastic planner.</p>
<p>I wanted to bring up the point, however, that frequently planning is seen as a weapon of the practical, future-obsessed realist. But in fact, it is equally the weapon of the opposite sort of person. Planning can actually be more a manifestation of dreams and hopes than a real game plan. And I do think that having a fantasy of being an aerospace engineer in the future, or whatever, is a great way to motivate one to do aerospace engineering as a degree. It is important to enjoy the moment, but human beings are by nature dreamers, and ask what will come of a given activity, unless the activity is painless. Studying something difficult can be painful, and part of what gives one the steam to do it is looking to the future. I say this as someone who studies stuff that is pretty challenging to him, but who enjoys his studies all the same. I’d be unhappy not to learn beautiful, complex material, but it’s not easy for me to study something I love; I conjecture that it’s easy for nobody to care deeply about something that many times eludes them. </p>
<p>And this applies to any plan in life, really. People who make plans to do “impossible” things are really dreaming more than anything else. I don’t know if others are with me, but that’s just my take. I think planning far into the future can be good even if the plan is not super realistic, just because it gives one something to dream about.</p>