the future

I have been asked to plan my life a year in advance. And for someone who likes to make her decisions collectively, or at least with others, this is a difficult exercise. I am agnostic about many things in the future, mainly location, but I am pretty certain how I want my life to feel. In many ways, these are long run considerations though--it's the planner in me that frets about them. Where, with whom, and in what fashion how will I construct my life?

Instead of focusing on these long-term considerations, some of which must be decided by December (conclusions are forming), I will day dream about short-term plans (you cannot take the planner out of this girl). Dinner with old old friends on Tuesday, hurricanes in New Orleans on Friday, maybe snuggles on Sunday. Hopefully a heckuva lot of work in between.

I've also been daydreaming recently about taking the summer to do something completely out of the ordinary this summer before starting work: a project in Africa, perhaps. The idea scares me as much as it excites me. These past few years have been a lot about teaching myself to take risks and be comfortable in those risks, regardless of the outcome...the chips will fall where they fall and we seize the multitude of opportunities available. We must play it as it lays.

So here's to accepting the planner but teaching her to be patient, and to a short and long run full of flexibility, experiments, calculated risks, and a heckuva lot of joy.