There comes a time in everyone’s life when you look around and see all of your friends getting married and having kids. Its weird thinking that three years ago I was a senior in high school talking to my friends about the future and how exciting yet scary everything felt. That summer before college went by fast and the freshman year that came after went by even faster. But with each year I seem to have the same types of talks with my friends about the future and joking about marriage and kids being right around the corner.

Don’t take this post as some type of diss toward young people ready to settle down but I can’t imagine being a dad or husband at 21. I’ve had one of the most exciting and lesson-filled years of my life and I can’t help but compare what I’m doing with my friends lives on Facebook. Traveling to London and finishing half of my last year in college was the highlight of my year while others got engaged or married to their significant others and that’s amazing for them. I love seeing how some of my friends relationships have blossomed to something so meaningful and serious. I predict the wedding invitations will start coming in a few years but damn I really can’t imagine that life right now.

I’m one of those millennials that fall into the category of being career driven. I’d rather chase career goals than chase kids I’m not mentally prepared to raise yet. I didn’t have the desire to fully step into the real world after high school with no concrete plan on what my future could hold. While most of my college experience will be remembered by what I did outside of the classroom, the things I learned and experienced are… Not priceless (look at my bank account)  but necessary to show me what I could truly achieve as an adult. I want to have a kid when I’m financially stable and I have my shit together. I give all my respect to people who can make the family, job and education thing work but I’m happy with my non-conventional future.

In the upcoming years I want to travel everywhere. There’s so many places in America alone that I haven’t experienced and I would be doing myself a big disservice if I didn’t think about the value of getting out of my comfort zone before it becomes less of a possibility. I’m tackling two careers that definitely lack job security and while I sometimes wish I had the desire to be a doctor or a computer programmer (I mean look at those salaries…) after a couple years of uncertainty I finally feel like I’m going toward the right path.

So as I step into 2016 and I make my occasional scrolls on Facebook, I’ll look at the baby pictures and engagement rings and wish them all of the fulfillment in the world. If you’re a high schooler looking at this, worried about the future, stop what you’re doing and just live. You have so much time to legally drink and live away from your parents. Trust me those days are fun but when you see your bank account deplete weekly from bills and you realize that aging isn’t a myth, you have to actually  grow up one day you’re going to wish you enjoyed your youth a little bit more…

Stay gold pony boy (Google it kids)