So, senior year is almost here and I’ve been trying my best to be prepared for it when it comes. Tonight I start part-time at a fro-yo shop in town, and will continue to work there through the school year. I (hopefully) will be able to build up my savings account a little before I graduate into the unknown.
We can’t only do the stuff we enjoy for the rest of our lives- but we can do more of it than we do. Our culture is very into the “do what you love” movement, and man is it amazing, but realistically not everyone can do what they love. We have to get money, we have to do the house work. It’s not an option to get rid of all of these things. But it is an option to make them less time consuming. House work? Clean as you go to save time for the things you love. Set aside blocks of time for hobbies. Make time for people.
Remember that it’s not just huge time consuming things that make you happy. It’s also little beautiful moments in life. So why this advice might seem to be reaching for the stars on what you’re able to do… it’s not. Make the lists and look over it. It might be as simple as reading for thirty minutes before bed or premaking homemade waffles on the weekend so you can eat them every work morning.
**I do not own this image**
Okay, okay, I’m turning twenty-one in two months. I’ve only got a year and a handful of weeks left of college. I’m there. I’m at that stage, straddling the line of “my parents support me” to “I’m my own person here to take the world” and it’s scary, let’s not lie. But it’s a time we all face, and we have to face it by turning out plans for the future.
Well, I’ve never not had plans. I know that nobody really lacks ideas, it’s always the realistic side they’re not holding onto. I have a friend who wants to do everything under the sun, and you know what? Maybe she’ll be able too, but lets start with the basics.
Now lay the answers out and try to connect them, like on TV with little red string. Does your planning go well with your extreme social skills- maybe your single but have a guilty pleasure for bridal magazines and would be good as a wedding planner. Maybe your hobby of social media goes well with your organizational skill- and maybe you have a huge blog following that makes you desirable in the PR field. Maybe your major was history and you’re a writer. Textbooks? Biography editor? Freelance researcher for a magazine?
We’ve been told since birth that we pick one thing to do with our lives, and at some point, our dreams stop fighting back. We want to be a doctor, a blogger, and a mother. A writer and a graphic designer, and a photographer. A… the list goes on and on. We think that we have to pick one trade to do all our life, because that’s what’s been instilled in us. Whether it be because we were told that we couldn’t make money any other way or it be because we wouldn’t have enough time to do both.
It’s false. You can do at least half a dozen things with your life. Some people are more talented at juggling them, but anyone can learn how too. A lot of time it does result in us doing one or two things for money and then the rest as hobbies, but if you work it right there is no reason why they can’t go hand in hand. See, most people don’t look to terribly far into how they can combine their interests. Maybe you’re a doctor with a weird schedule but in your down time you blog about the time spent with your daughter, and blog about balancing work with motherhood. A lot of hobbies/interests have more in common than you’d imagine. Try spending some time researching all the types of jobs that combine them, whether it be on google or in a book (there are books written on everything). When it comes having time, I’ll repeat what every other person does: you pick your priorities and you have the same twenty-four hours as everyone else. People do these thing all the time. Figure out how to make it work for you.
Anna Down South 