What's My Plan Again?

Ask me a question.

Ask me what I plan to be in 5 years.

My answer?

I have absolutely no clue.

Now, if you would have asked me 2 years ago what my plan was, I would have had an elaborate answer of where I would be living, the profession I would be mastering and the flawless lifestyle I'd be living.

Just a little under 2 years ago, I graduated from college. Shortly after graduating, I realized my "life after college" plan (which included being a famous lifestyle journalist, living in Chicago and wearing the best fashion) needed to be scrapped.

Realizing that my dreams needed to be put on the side for a couple of years was more difficult than I imagined. It's hard when you set your mind up for certain expectations to only find out that maybe those expectations weren't exactly right for you.

Let's backtrack a little.

That first year after graduating was, in simple terms, hard. I had put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to become someone, to become well-known fast, and to push myself in every writing outlet. I was burning my candle from both ends and falling apart at the seams.

I had a temporary job at my college for the first year after I graduated. It taught me a lot about multimedia, which was spectacular for the profession I wanted to go into but I wasn't getting paid enough and they had no intention of hiring me full time.

As if working 40 hours wasn't enough, I began a writing job for a website. It was non-paid but I knew I would be earning my way in experience. I would do interviews in my car on my lunch break and write at nights to finish a story by its deadline.

I didn't think my temp job or writing for a website would get me to be that famous journalist so I started teaching myself how to create my own website. Still, in my mind I thought I had to do more. So I decided to do a weekly blog with short stories. On top of all of this, I was also hunting for jobs and handing out my resume like a napkin at a hot wings contest.

Writing became a frivolousness chore to me and I started to hate it. No longer was this career I chose for myself bringing joy to my life; writing became an annoyance and an irritation. In my head, I couldn't let go of my plan and I thought the only way to become this journalist was to push myself to the edge but I wasn't pushing myself to the edge, I was pushing myself over it.

I needed a new plan but sadly at that chaotic and frustrating time in my life I just had no time to think of one. For once in my life, I did not have a next move, I had no plan of action.

At the time I was stressed out and giving up hope on finding a full-time job, but ironically it's always at your breaking point that someone lends you a hand.

I was offered to apply for a help desk job at The Dow Chemical Company by a woman I was introduced to by my boyfriend at his little brother's football game. I actually had no interest in this job and went to the interview with no intention on getting it. Surprisingly, I got offered the job and I knew it wasn't in my desired profession but I took it.

I know what you're thinking. Why would you take a help desk job when you are working all these little jobs that revolve around being a journalist? I took it because I needed to step away from my original plan and I saw a fresh start. I realized that maybe the plan I initially had just wasn't meant for me and that isn't a bad thing.

The lesson I've learned from all of this was sometimes having no plan or one simple plan works. Especially when you're coming right out of college and the best plan you can have is to just get a job. Start somewhere and grow. That was the decision I made when I said yes to the job at Dow Chemical. I also made the decision to stop putting so much pressure on myself when it came to writing. I used to write for myself and through all the little things I was doing, I was writing to be someone, not because it made me happy.

I wanted to love writing again, it's my passion, so in order to get back to that point I had to let go of it for a while. I quit the job for the website, stop production on my own website and took a break from my blog. I focused on my job at Dow Chemical and was reassured that I would find my way to writing again.

Let's jump ahead a little bit.

Today is my 1 year anniversary at Dow Chemical. After only 6 months of working at Dow I was promoted to be the Print and Literature Production Specialist. I am writing again, not only here on this website but I'm working on some short stories in my spare time. I found my way back to enjoying writing, I got back to doing it for myself.

So ask me a question.

Is it OK that my original plan didn't work out?

Absolutely because I wouldn't be writing this article if it didn't.