Keeping My Options Open

Today I'm going to a family thing.


This means a load of people I haven't seen for years (or ever) asking me about my life. This will probably include questions like: "What are you going to do now that you've finished your degree."


The truthful answer to this is actually: "I don't have a clue! :)"


But this answer is always met with looks that blatantly say: omg! She's going to throw her life away!


What is it with this attitude?! 


Seriously, just because I don't know what I'm going to do doesn't mean I have no motivation or aspiration. For instance, I would like to be published in the future, I would like to have a job and own a car and a house and get married and have children. But right now I have no idea what kind of career I want.


In my experience, having a plan is useless anyway. Vague ideas are different, but a plan is stupid. It's only through a mixture of luck, fate and coincidence that we end up anywhere anyway, and when we get there we might not even like it.


People say they want to be a doctor, for instance, probably don't account for the long hours when they say it. They may hate it, they won't know until they try it.


I won't know what kind of career I want until I try a couple of things out. I don't expect to jump head-first into a job I will love. So, no, I don't know what I want to do, but that doesn't mean I won't try things out.


I'm not throwing my life away, it's called keeping my options open.