At the age of 15, I sat in my bedroom and literally wrote out month by month what I would be doing for the rest of my life until I took my final breath at the age of 90. That was 1985 and although I figured that by my death in 2060 we'd be like the Jetsons, I wrote what I knew at the time.
I wish I had kept that long and detailed booklet so I could compare it all to my actual life, the way things turned out instead. I do remember a few things. In my 15-year-old version of how my life would be, I would go to college and major in Journalism (that actually happened). I would have a writing job for a magazine that would make me lots of money (ha ha ha ha ha). I would get married at the age of 25 (in real life, I was 26) and two years later, I would become a mom (my real life meant having my first child at age 28).
Surprisingly, a few things I had planned turned out the way I envisioned them. I married a former athlete who was now a professional businessman. I became a published author. I got highly involved in cancer awareness. I had kids and dogs. I have spent lots of time traveling all over the world.
The stuff I got way wrong, though! I had two kids instead of three. I did not get my own ranch in the mountains. I didn't actually end up staying friends with anyone I knew in East Texas.
But the thing that stands out the most was that real life ended up having a lot more twists and turns and pain than I could have imagined. I knew there would be pain. It's not like I was raised in a bubble. My baby brother nearly died of cancer. I'd seen some destruction and sorrow. But when I wrote out the entirety of my life, I put the good stuff in there! There were no arguments with my husband. And he was always perfectly happy and healthy and wearing the greatest of fashions (mind you, they were '80s fashions because that was when I wrote this). My kids didn't cause me trouble even as teenagers. We always had enough money and friends and time to do what we wanted to do.
How I wish I could go back and read that darn thing. I spent hours on it! What kinds of things did you hope for as a kid that turned out the way you wanted? And what things did not turn out the way you wanted?
