The "I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with my life" Syndrome

For some reason my generation massively suffers from having no direction, set path or purpose for the rest of our lives. And it's not that we are lazy and not thinking about the future--in fact the opposite is true: we've spent the last decade or so through high school and college trying to find out what we want to do.

Many of us had goals and plans that were quickly trampled upon by the reality of our careers when we actually started studying them in school or when we dealt with an internship or in the real world. Half way through the process we realized we majored in the wrong thing and by then it's too late and too many student loans later to start over and we graduate and end up doing something totally unrelated or something just to pay the bills. We thought we had our whole lives planned out but now we are back at square one realizing that what we thought we wanted we really don't want any more. So then it's a question of perhaps going back to school, then being faced with a whole new series of challenges--what to major in, where to go, how to pay for it, if you really need to go, and once again we're back at the beginning.

And then if you believe in the spiritual aspect of your purpose and destiny, that further complicates things. For me it has been a battle between what I want to do, and what I think I should do, versus what God has for me. What's even worse is when you're not hearing from God as to what it is that He has. So once again back at square one.

Then there are those of those who have a growing list of things they want to do but don't know where or how to start.

Meanwhile you still have to eat, pay off debts and loans if you are ultra lucky, and some how become independent and a grown up. How is it that college doesn't really prepare you for any of this? How is it that some of us spend 4-5 plus years and sometimes upwards of $100,000+ later and still don't know what we want to do?

We are a generation that wanders aimlessly in the growing wilderness of opportunities. Sometimes I think it is a curse to be blessed with so many possibilities, ones that our parent's generation never had.

It is a blessing though that we are able to change our minds (even when we are threatened by our parents and maybe viewed as quitters by society) and that we, unlike our parents, realize that we've made a mistake a lot sooner than 30 years down the line at a deadend job. And not only that, but that we have the guts to take the great leap of faith when we finally find out what we really want to do.

We are ambitious, bright, adventurous, and optimistic. We are definitely generation ideal, generation American Dream, generation Carpe Diem. It may take us a little longer but we'll eventually get what we really want and hopefully as a result lead more fulfilling lives.