Many of us might not really believe in destiny. I believe that there is something each of us is meant to do, but I don't necessarily believe that it will plop itself down in our laps. I've learned that it's just not the way life works for most of us.
You don't need to be a writer in order to write your own destiny. There are tons of jobs in the world, most of which I STILL don't know anything about. I have learned that if you do something you love to do, you'll probably find a creative way to achieve the type of (realistic) success you want.
You Don't Need to Know Your Destiny Right Away
Part of what's great about life is that it really is a journey. It's not about the destination, but there are times when it's hard to wait. In high school--heck in middle school--I had my life career already picked out. I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. I loved the ocean, and everything about the ocean. I still think it would be an awesome job. My family moved to the middle of the country where the nearest ocean was probably over 1,000 miles away in any given direction. Small problem.
Opportunities don't always exist when or where we desire. I ended up caving to my parent's advice. They either wanted to move with me, or I couldn't go to the colleges that were on the coast and had reputable Marine Biology degree programs. We didn't have the money to move, so I didn't bother going. I compromised by going to a nearby school and taking a Biology degree path. I always heard, "pick something that will make you a good living". When it became apparent that the move across country had also set me back quite a bit in my math skills, I had to decide what I was going to do.
I realized at the time, that I liked to create things and I enjoyed business atmospheres. I signed up for the next semester, changing to a double major of Business and Art. My parent convinced me to come home, certain that working from home and going to school would be the best thing. It wasn't the worst, but the local school didn't have the same programs. I ended up changing my major again to media studies. Once my original "dream" had been hijacked, I just kept bouncing from one degree program to the next. It wasted my time, though I learned a lot of different and interesting things, and I still hadn't found something that I loved the way I had loved the idea of Marine Biology.
Years later, I was having the same crisis, and my college funds ran out. I was 6 classes away from finally getting my bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. If you learn anything from this, please learn that even if you still feel very much like a kid, it's still YOUR life. You are the one that will have to look back on your choices and wonder what would have been different if you'd done the thing you were passionate about. There are ways to do things--completely legally--and people who are willing to help. There was no such thing as 'Go Fund Me' when I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. It was scary to think of having so many private loan debts hanging over my head, but I might now be sitting somewhere near the ocean with a valid degree and probably decent pay.
My destiny could have been a great many things, and it still could be multiple different things. I don't just have to be a writer, I can also do a bunch of other things I'm interested in. Choosing one path didn't mean I had to give up on all the other paths either, even though it felt like I had to. It took me a while to learn that most people have a few different careers in their lives. We can always decide to make the best of the situations we find ourselves in, but sometimes we just need to think outside the box to get where we want to be. It might take a while to decide what we want for our destiny, and even longer to get there. That's okay. Life is a journey, and we learn so much just by traveling the path we choose.
Stay flexible too, because you might discover something you love even more than your original plan. Dreams can change frequently, and so can opportunities. If you have a passion, invest in it however you can. That is how you will write your own destiny in life. You've got this!
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