We don’t have to settle down

I’m sure most of us have seen complaints and memes about how  our generation wants to travel and wants to live in a van/bus. Many people can’t imagine why we don’t want to ‘settle down’ after we graduate. 

The expectation is graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, retire and then if you can physically handle it,  you can travel. We are expected to work while in college, during the summer, when we graduate and then spend the rest of our lives in an office. 

So many of our parents have rarely left the state they live in, much less the country. 

We live in a world with some amazing nature, culture and all-around great experiences. So many of them are considered privileges, we think that you should have to save up your whole life before you get to leave and see some of this world. 

While I can’t speak for everyone, I would rather see the aworld then be traditionally ‘successful’. I have always been this way. In middle school, I went to Costa Rica after spending months selling raffle tickets, just to be able to afford to go. 

Then the next year I signed up to go to Greece and Italy, which was not an easy choice. I wasn’t home for Easter and spent what was left of my FFA and 4-H money. It was expected that I would regret this choice, I wasn’t able to afford to buy a car later and I was broke for a good while. 

I can assure you that I have never once regretted that choice. When I chose to live and work in Hawaii, I knew that I would be 3,000 miles away from anyone I knew and spending my summer alone. 

Once again, I never regretted it. 

If you asked me what my greatest accomplishments are, no academic or work award would be in the running. I have been lucky to experience all I have already, and I plan to continue doing so. 

While these experiences are big ones, there are so many things we can do to experience our lives to the fullest. 

Even if its swimming in a lake, learning to paddleboard, climbing that cliff, hiking off trail, backpacking, going to that small town museum, it’s still an experience. 

We should be living like the world is ending and like we have nothing to lose.

Growing up doesn’t have to mean that our lives are over. The best days of our lives, as I often hear, are not passed us. 

A majority of our lives are in front of us and there is so much that we can do.

As a generation that has a big focus on academic validation and career pressures, don’t forget to enjoy life. If you are stuck with only being happy when you are ‘successful’, there won’t be much of life to look back at.