Something I've come to realize in this last year or so as I've just kind of been fumbling through life (career-wise, not personal--that side of my life is always awesome), is that I miss, maybe even need, a structured plan.
Elementary school is elementary school...you're worried about what your mom packed you for lunch, or whether the nuns are going to confiscate your scrunchie because it doesn't conform to the school colors of brown, green, black or white (oh wait, was that just me?).
Junior high you start thinking about what's gonna happen after...and you know you've got four years of high school before you really have to worry about anything else.
High school you start thinking ahead to college, but you have counselors and parents around you telling you what you need to do to get there. Take the SAT. Study and get good grades. You know how many credits you need to graduate, and what classes you need to take to graduate. You fill out college applications, send them out.
College is a more serious version of high school: you have to pick a major, but once you do that, it's all laid out before you: you need x units of general ed, x units towards your major, throw in a foreign language, make sure you get passing grades on all of them, and you're set.
I know, it's a simplistic view of our whole educational life, but
bear with me.
I sometimes feel that one of the few reasons I went to law school was because I still needed this plan. I didn't really know what to do next...so I decided to get back into a system that planned things out for me. It planned my next three years. Granted, it got me into a huge financial debt, but I've talked about my woes regarding that
already.
But after law school...I feel like I'm completely lost. There's no one telling me what credits I need to complete to move on to the next stage or chapter of my life. And it freaks me the fuck out (sorry mom).
Brookie and I talked about it this week, and it was refreshing to know that I'm not the only one that feels like this. Maybe that's why I finally sat down to share this on my blog, even though I've been meaning to write it for months.
Most people don't need this sort of "planning," and instead thrive on just taking care of things as they come along. I really wish I was more like that (another blog I've been meaning to write is how much I hate my type-A personality sometimes). But alas, I need a plan.
A light bulb went on this morning. I looked for an email my friend Sheena sent me eons ago, with an attachment entitled: "Visioning and Personal Action Plans." TA-DA! She's pretty much been telling me I should do this for over a year, and I kept putting it off. I think it's time.
So. Brookie and I have date: life planning.
