Well lets face it we’re all scared of the Oblivion… but the simple fact is that we are all gonna die (the sooner you accept this fact the easier it will be). There really is nothing we can do about dying, but you can choose to live your life in a way that will make you completely happy. So in the last days of your life you can say you had no regrets.
We don’t regret the things we did even if they were mistakes, we call them life lessons and move on from them. By making mistakes we learn and grow as people but if you’re too scared to make a mistake how do you possibly grow. Take a chance and do what you love because in the end do you want to say ‘I lived a life that I was never truly satisfied with’ or do you want to say ‘I lived a completely amazing life doing all the things I wanted’. I know which I want to say in my last few days. In the immortal words of J.K. Rowling –
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not lived at all – In which case you fail by default”
So what now?
Once you make the chose to live the life you want the real hard part begins, now it’s time to figure out what you want form your life. Why is this the hard part you might be asking? Well there is a whole world out there and a billion paths you could take in your life but most only know the obvious. The path that goes a little like this- School- University- Marriage-Job- Children (This is a simplified version of this path). If this is the path for you cool, do you boo. Just don’t chose this path because it’s the safe one if your hearts not in it. To me this path is too linear; it’s all one after another.
So firstly I’m gonna tell you what my personal path is, then I’m gonna tell you how to find yours.
I personally know that I want to help people, that and make art. I need a way to help people while still been able to be creative. That’s why I decided I wanted to do volunteer work in third world countries. While I’m there I can be inspired by the local art, tradition and culture. My art comes from what I see and experience. Well that will be one hell of an experience (I hope, I haven’t started yet I’m still in school but when I do I’ll defiantly take you all along with me). I don’t know where my path will lead me from there, well I guess that’s the beauty. I’m just gonna have to wait and see what happens. I really like that, not knowing where I’m going from the end of sixth form, is yes, very scary but it’s also the most exciting thing that I could do. This isn’t for everyone, many people would be petrified but weirdly I’m not scared of going I’m scared of what my mom will say/think (but that’s a post for a different day). The thing about my path is I don’t know where I’m gonna start from I might get a job and save money first or I might just take off one day out of the blue. I still don’t know, but as they say –
“Life’s a journey, not a destination”.
But enough about me, you really want to know how to decide what path you need to take. Just always remember at any time you can change paths just because you’re on a path now doesn’t mean it’s the right one. You just have to have courage and conviction that you’ll know the path you’re meant to be on when you find it.
So how do you find it?
- Know who you are as a person. Know what you like and what makes you happy. What do you do for fun and what are your passion and hobbies (do you see a theme the word ‘You’ and ‘Your’ keeping coming up. Take the hint this is not about other people this is for ‘You’)
- Look for the trends in the stage above. This is basically looking for recurring themes and ideas in your personal profile. For example-The themes that I discovered in my own list ( I wrote all this on a piece of paper, I’m gonna tweet the list later maybe) were as follows-
- Different world countries I wanted to see.
- Different types of arts and crafts.
- Different charities that I liked.
- Food (enough said).
- How can all these things on your personal profile comes together to make on path for you. Now this is the hard part and it does take some time. Just don’t stress, for some people they find their path really easy for other like me their path is really hard to find. Sometimes it does take some time like I only really knew that I didn’t want to go university in the last few weeks (I knew I wanted to travel and do charity work, but I though I’d do all that after university). For I long time I thought I wanted to go university but then I realised that I really didn’t, all I really wanted to do was leave home. Well going university was all about getting away from home. That’s not the reason you should go university, you should go because you want to.
- Next steps. Once you find your path and know what you what you want to do, you then have to figure out the ‘How’ and ‘When’ (I’m struggling with the ‘When’ my self, so don’t worry too much). You want to set a realistic time frame for all this. I’m not saving you need to know what will happen ever minute of every day, all I’m saying is don’t plan to start on your new path when you know that I will not happen because of a commitment that can’t be broken(such as an exam). this will only lead to you being disappointed. Also don’t wait too long to start your plans, The longer you wait the harder it becomes, just keep this in mind when you are waiting-
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Start on your new path. It’s that simple and that hard so just Start.
Well that’s it, that’s all the advice I have on this subject. I do want to say one thing your path is never set in stone, you can always change it. So don’t worry Just ‘Be You’. I wish you all the best of luck on your path. let me know what happens because I’d really want to know where you end up.
X Anisa X
The Inevitable Oblivion 