I can't remember the quote perfectly but a professor here at UCSD is known for telling us that we are at the luckiest points of our lives to be young, poor and some other seemingly undesirable aspect of a nineteen year old's life in college. There are times when I would whole-heartedly agree with him and others when I know I cannot appreciate his wisdom for many, many more years.
This time in anyone's life is funny. In my case, the bubble of college, surrounded by thousands of people going through the same exact things I go through everyday. Sometimes I find myself forgetting what life outside of this bubble is like and I am often reminded whenever I leave campus for a couple of days. My mom came down and visited over the past three day weekend and we drove up to visit family. We had a long breakfast with Aunt Daisy, Uncle Mike and her sister, brother-in-law and Jaclyn (basically my cousin) where we talked about Jaclyn's and my future. Daisy's sister is a lawyer and she talked me through the next eight years of my life, if I choose to go down that path. At first it was overwhelming to once again realize that these decisions are coming up so quickly.
I say once again because of the bubble. All of my friends and peers here have been talking about their futures for some time now. We all think we have a good idea of what we want and how to get there but we all have doubts. We wonder what the chances are of us actually achieving our goals. It can be scary. But it can also be a powerful motivator and, honestly, it's pretty freaking exciting.
After that lengthy talk this weekend, I can say that I have a better idea of what lies ahead and I appreciate that immensely. I know what I want and have a pretty good idea of the road to take. The doubts are still there and will be for quite some time. I will not be able to say with any degree of certainty that I am going to be a successful lawyer ten years from now until...about ten years from now.
But I know a few things. I am always (whether at home or here in San Diego) surrounded by incredible people who love me and will support me to hell and back. I know that ten years from now I want to be doing something that matters and I know that is more than possible. I know that the doubts will never vanish but, from experience, I know they are a lot less powerful than they seem.
"My God, Amazing that we got this far, It's like we're chasing all those stars.. Tell me what you want to hear, something that were like all those years, I'm sick of all the insincere, So I'm gonna give all my secrets away" --One Republic
