Have you ever woken up one morning and realized how different your life is compared to what you always pictured your life would be like? When you are young you have a vision of "your life" and somehow you can't imagine how it would ever be different.
I remember when I was younger I would watch all the twenty-year-olds and I would think they were so old and wise. They were married women with husbands, jobs, babies on the way, and people I could not relate to. I assumed when I was that age I would be the same as them. But that would be so far into the future it seemed impossible.
So here I am at twenty, and my life is nothing how I pictured. I am not married, no babies on the way, and I have recently switched majors. I don't even feel any older than I did when I was little. I still day-dream about my prince on his white horse. I still sometimes get afraid of the dark. I still imagine I'm a fairytale princess in a palace.
Sometimes it makes me laugh when I realize that I thought getting older would make me more of a wise grown-up. I feel just as confused about the world now as I did then. Actually I am more confused now, because I know more! I once heard a quote that said something about "the more you know, the more you realize you don't know".
Sometimes it makes me cry that my life isn't how I pictured it. It's much harder then I ever imagined. As a child you long to be older, as an adult you long to be like a child again. Innocent, naive, and life is simple.
But that's the point. Life was not made to be simple. If we knew how life was supposed to be, we wouldn't try, we wouldn't learn, and then what would are purpose be? Life is a challenge, a struggle, and constantly changing in ways we can't understand.
Yet even though it's hard, it's beautiful. When you step back to look at all you have accomplished, all you have learned, and all the beauty around you it makes it all worth it. Though you may cry yourself to sleep in the dark, a new and bright morning will always find you bringing hope.
