Brooklyn Jespersen
Staff Writer
As I grow older, I begin to wonder if I am going to get married or if I will find a successful job after college.
My parents met when they were nineteen and married at twenty-seven. My friends and family continue to get married and have children while I am left single. It seems like every time I have a family gathering or my friends get together, they have similar news to share.
I really felt if I did not have a boyfriend by the time I was nineteen I would not be able to get married. This lead to me spending more time worrying about the future than enjoying the present. I was beginning to rearrange my life so that I could have more free time to meet new people.
Besides this confusion over my marriage prospects, I also had anxiety over what I was going to do after college. I felt like all my friends had their careers and lives figured out by the time they ended their freshman year of college. I started thinking about what I was going to do after I finished college and thoughts about the jobs I could find with my degree in English Literature began to surface.
Fortunately for me I realized just as many people were as worried about careers after school as I was. I also learned that many Americans do not enjoy the jobs they have. Pew Research Center in an article called, “The State of American Jobs” reports 9 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs, while 6 percent were very dissatisfied with their jobs.
I slowly began to realize I did not want to rush into a career because then I could fall into the 6 percent of Americans who were very dissatisfied with their jobs.
This helped subside my anxiety over my future job, but I was worried about if I was going to get married and have a family.
I was only able to put these thoughts to rest as well when I began to see not all of my friends were happy with the people they were with.
McKinley Irvin Family Law reports 50 perfect of American marriages end in divorce.
As my friends began to go through break-ups and fights that led to divorce I realized there was no reason to rush into a relationship either. Just as the job, I would much rather wait until I was in a relationship that made me happy then rush into something just because I wanted to be like all my friends and family.
Through this journey I have realized it is good to have a little bit of anxiety over my future, but I would much rather spend my life in the moment. I learned many important things while struggling with these issues, but there are three things I will always remember and share with others.
Never define the value of your life by someone else’s because there is no set time-line on your life and everyone is different.
Live in the moment because at the end of the day right now is all you have.
This is the most important advice to remember because it helps you to take your life one day at a time, the greatest things in life happen when you least expect them to.