This post is pretty necessary; not so much for me, but more so for ALL THE LADIES.
I can not tell you how many times I have heard some variation of this complaint in the last 3 weeks from friends: "I've had panic attacks over the fact I am not in a relationship/married/having kids/(fill in perceived life crisis here)!!!"
Honestly, people are freakin' out! Now, I know. I'm at that age. The age where the pressure is THICK: 29 years old. You would think that we all die at 30, given this psychotic urge to accomplish every life milestone, NOW.
Whoa, guys, whoa! I'm going to go ahead and say this:
if you are always trying to plan your life, when exactly are you living your life?
The push to have kids, be married, and be on "the plan" has affected me less, because well...I'm weird. Well, maybe not so much weird as understanding of the fact that this is MY LIFE. MY JOURNEY. MY UNIQUE STORY. That means I get to write this anyway I choose! If I want to go live in Granada, Spain for two years completely disregarding any notion of marrying or having kids in "my prime," I can! (And I would).
Even if you want marriage and kids, you need to ask yourself, do you truly want them now? Or do you want them because you've been told that's what you should have at this time in your life?
Are you a follower in your own damn life???? (harsh, but true).
Going to England in 2012 at the age of 27 was the best thing I have ever done in my life. Why? Because it went against any sort of plan I should have been following, and
aligned more with the desires of my little Ashley heart. It also introduced some chaos to my life, which is the most refreshing medicine to stress, anxiety, and panic attacks!
There is something freeing in learning how to let life unfold the way it is supposed to instead of trying to mold and manipulate life into what
you think it's supposed to be. Planning can be
so limiting. Especially when we waste time trying to implement someone else's plans into our lives. Or try to speed up plans before their time. Because sometimes, SOMETIMES, life has bigger plans for us than what we could have even imagined or thought up.
As for me, I prefer a little chaos.