“My Past and Present Selves, and the Path to My Future Old Self

” For as long as I can remember, I have always had great aspirations for my future and not just my career goals or my parent life. I have been planning out my entire life since it began. I always thought it was a curse because it prohibited me from living in the here and now a lot of times; however, these attributes have become very beneficial in this class. The closest future goal I guess I would have would be graduating Sonoma State University with a bachelor of arts in Biology and a minor in gerontology. My degree as well as my experience and GPA will hopefully help me earn my way into an ABSN also known as a accelerated bachelor of science in nursing program. After achieving my Bachelor of Science in Nursing, I hope to get a job as a geriatric oncologist nurse practitioner. I haven’t always wanted this occupation. When I was six, my younger sister was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes and since that moment, it has always been my goal to cure her or get as close as I could to making her life as long and happy as I could. I have later realized that was a huge turning point in my life. Since then I have found the harsh truth of reality and have decided to focus on achieving that goal as her sister and not as her endocrinologist. Throughout my life in college, I have also determined that medical school is not for me and neither is becoming a doctor. I want my life to revolve around my children rather than my career. I still wanted to be in the health field, but ssI wanted to pursue an occupation that could also work with my family time. This helped me decide on a nurse practitioner. The inspiration for choosing geriatric oncology is an entirely different story.Throughout years in college my family and I also had the unfortunate event of losing both my grandpas to cancer. With my first grandfather and closest, the process was very sudden and not expected. He was honestly one of my closest friends. You know that one person in life who will always have your back and support you no matter what mistakes you make? That was him. I could murder someone for no reason and he would fight anyone to the death to justify it. My papa was my biggest ally and supporter, so it makes total sense that ever since he was diagnosed with pneumonia I would drive three hours back home every weekend to sit and take care of him in the hospital. It wasn’t long until the cancer spread everywhere and he was sent to hospice. The night of his passing, I raced down the freeway going probably ninety miles per hour. It was around midnight when I got there, but luckily my grandma was still awake. Unfortunately, my papa was no longer there mentally, so I spent most the night calming him down and exploring the hospice. I felt completely at peace and happy around death it seemed and I realise that is hard to come by. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m closest to heaven when I’m there. I’ve always loved the elderly, but I would have never guessed it would become my career. While visiting my papa, I noticed that he had a lot more family members and friends in and out of his room than most. Some patients didn’t even have one visitor. My passion is helping people fight. I want to give them hope and brighten each and every day I have with them. And if they can no longer battle, I hope to give them a peaceful passing. I want to honor any and all beliefs and religions. Faith is something extremely significant in my life and I hope that this belief can give me better insight in my future occupation as well as my future family. All the whilst I am furthering into my career journey, I hope to meet my future husband. Although my career has and always will be very important to me, my family and future family will always be my biggest priority. I would blame this opinion on some of the personal life obstacles that I have pursued throughout my time so far on this planet. I hope to be married by twenty-four which is coincidentally right on the normative timetable in Quadagno’s article on moodle; however, I am thoroughly willing to wait as long as needed to find my soulmate. Finding someone who compliments my life and personality and goals is well worth the wait. Upon the summer before sixth grade, my parents were going through a divorce which affected my sister’s and my childhood very significantly. Although I have always had that tiny piece of me hoping they would get back together, I have learned to become grateful for it. This life event forced me to grow up much faster and take on a more mature outlook at a young age. Although, I do not believe my parents forced me to grow up. I honestly believe my own self responsibility and protectiveness over my sister was the biggest factor. By going through these events I believe I have instilled in myself the importance of finding a compatible mate. Among all things, I desire friendship as well as mutual respect and goals. Although my opinion may change, I hope to start having kids by twenty-five or twenty-six and my plan is to have four children in total. I grew up with only my sister, but I have always wished for a bigger family. After the divorce of my parents and the death of many of my family members, most of my family functions have disappeared. We no longer meet up for every Christmas or Thanksgiving. We no longer vacation together. One day, I hope to have that again. I hope to live on a big plot of land somewhere near the mountains with my big ole’ family. I have always craved consistency in my life since it lacked so much while growing up, so I hope to keep that same plot of land throughout my entire life and maybe even see it being passed down to my children one day. I hope to see my children grow up and get married on our property. I dream of a time where I can invite all the uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, and friends to a gathering at my place. Whether it be a Super Bowl Party or any random holiday, I hope to give any and every guest a welcoming home away from home. I also hope to encourage my husband and children to join me in church every Sunday. I wasn’t raised in Faith, but I have always believed and trusted in the Lord. When I was young my papa read me the children’s bible and I tagged along to church with my closest friends as often as I could, but that was it. Once I got to high school I joined the hope club because I always knew I wanted to make religion a bigger part of my life. Now as I’m in college, I do my best to make it to church every Sunday. I even plan on getting baptised this summer. I hope to raise my children in God’s grace. I hope to show them how to be God’s light by example. I consider myself an “omnimist” which just means I believe that all religions share some truth. In my opinion, it’s all just faith and I don’t believe we should be able to control other people’s choices of faith. And this is how I plan to raise my children. I can only hope that they believe in a higher being or a higher purpose, but I will respect any opinion they take on. Besides faith, I hope to raise my children to know the importance of kindness. Volunteering is a hobby I thoroughly enjoy and I wish to instill that in my children as well. Helping others has always been something I have always enjoyed while growing up. I took a more hands on approach once I got to high school by joining programs like leadership and the soroptimist club. Since then I have also joined other amazing organizations in college that have given me the opportunity to volunteer even more. As I age, I hope my involvement in volunteering only continues to grow. I plan on taking an active role in contributing to my community by doing things like hosting fundraisers to raise money for our small town high school or one of our local shops downtown or by organizing charity events. My goal is to be one of the family’s in town that everyone knows they can rely on for a helping hand. I want our community to know who we are and know that they can lean on us when they are in need.Due to my goal of having four children, I realize that I will have to make a large amount of money to support them. With this in mind, becoming a nurse practitioner is a pretty stable idea. I would have a solid amount of income although I might have to work longer and more hours than I really want to. On the other hand, if the man I marry ends up being somewhat wealthy, I may retire from nursing early and go back to get my teaching credential. Both my parents are teachers and I have always thought of going into education. My plan would be to become a high school anatomy or A.P. Biology teacher. As I know from experience, teaching and parenting go hand and hand, When you’re at work, your kids are at school. I would be able to attend every school play, game, and assembly without even taking any days off. As I age, I plan to take a very active role in my children’s life. Coaching and the Parent Teacher Association both sound like something I would love to actively take part in. I was blessed with amazing parents who allowed me to take part of any activity or sports I was really passionate about partaking in. They not only physically supported me at every game or recital, but they financially supported me as well. Since my children’s birth, I also hope to start a savings account for their college expense as my parents did. Although it did not cover all of my college fees, it did help a tremendous amount and I would be in a lot more debt without it. Fortunately, I can say that I will graduate with less than five thousand dollars in debt which is very uncommon. I pay a lot of bills on my own such as utilities,gas, food, and any extracurricular activities that I partake in through college, but I am extremely thankful for all of my parents help. I enjoy having to work to help sustain myself because it forces me to appreciate everything more. I plan to do a similar process with my children although I may help them out just a tad more because going without food somedays sucks and I would never want my children without. As they grow older, I hope to stay near to all of my children. I want watch them get married and help them raise children of their own. My grandparents on my mother’s side were actively in my life all the time. They went to every basketball or volleyball game, every track or swim meet, every dance recital or musical. Their presence meant the world to me and I hope to give that same opportunity to my grandchildren. I hope to spoil them and love them just like mine did for me. Another plan that I hope to achieve while I age is to never stop “working”. Even after I retire, I hope to go through everyday staying active and volunteering and spending all the time I have left on this planet with the ones I love. One of my favorite goals is to one day turn my backyard into a venue preferably for weddings. It would take some investing to begin with, but I believe it would be an amazing additional income. In my opinion, I would be “killing two birds with one stone”. Not only would I be able to make more money on the side, but I would also be able to take advantage of having a nice, well kept backyard. My first job was through my family’s catering business which gave me so many opportunities to be at weddings. While waiting tables or passing out tri tip, I was able to admire everything around me. I love weddings and staging and everything in between. I could definitely see myself helping others create the perfect environment for their perfect wedding. This idea would also give the opportunity to further enjoy my other hobby which is photography. I love taking portraits of people among nature. I take pleasure in staging them, so that I may capture their emotions in a frame. Acting as an event venue host, I would be able to offer an on sight photographer as well…. Me. As I age, I hope I will be given more time to indulge in more hobbies. I have always wanted to take up gardening. Staying healthy is something I have always been passionate about and creating my own garden is just another step toward excelling in that. I also hope to further my mental knowledge as well as strength when it comes to other activities like yoga, pilates, karate, and even kickboxing. Maybe I can join a gym that offers those types of classes after I retire. I work at one now, so I know they’re out there. Another hobby I hope to take up is travelling.I have never really been into cars or branded clothing or material things. I would much rather spend my money on the experiences I have and the people I love. I plan on travelling to as many places as I can while I’m alive. I may not have that much money now, but I am currently doing my best to still travel as much as possible. I have gotten the amazing opportunity already to visit places like Alaska, Canada, Hawaii, and many spots in Mexico. Once I get a steady job, hopefully these trips will become more consistent. Traveling with my husband, kids, and family are the truest acts of happiness to me. Since I’ve gone away to college, I have been consistently left out of many family trips. My father and stepmother are extremely close and favor traveling as a couple. Although I’m sure I will love travelling with my husband, sharing the whole experience with my family sounds even better. One of my all time favorite adventures I have been on would be my family trip to Yellowstone. It occured the week of my ninth birthday where my grandparents, sister, mom, and dad all hopped in the motorhome and sent off alongside my extended family members’ RV. I will forever remember driving from state to state jamming out to a Journey album with my whole family. Playing in the dirt with my cousins or sitting on my papa’s lap by the campfire may be some of the fondest memories I have from my childhood. I hope to one day be able to say that I have been to every continent with my loved ones by my side.An average day for my future retired self will hopefully start out around eight in the morning. I hope to wake up every morning next to my husband in our quaint little house that we retired to because our first house got too big for only the two of us. Our humble abode is still just as cozy and filled to the brim with pictures of all the happy memories we created together. We’ll still live among nature and we’ll do our best to stay active for as long as our bodies will let us. Camping and teaching our grandchildren how to fish or bake just like mine did for me. My goal is that most of our time will be spent with our amazing family and friends. And when it comes to the days when everyone is too busy to do that, I will rely on the amazing friendship I have made with my husband. I hope that we may always live with the same humour and energy as we had when we first met. I hope to give my children and grandchildren the best example of what true love, friendship, and respect looks like. May we be cracking jokes and teasing each other always. As we go on through the day, I hope to fill our time with obsessing over our hobbies. Maybe I’ll be gardening or reading a new novel while my husband is in the garage again tinkering on a new craft he’s making for one of our kids. I pray that we’ll both stay active, preferably with at least thirty minutes of heart pumping recreations every day. I also hope that I’ll finally know how to cook by then, so that we may nurture our bodies with healthy foods like vegetables from my garden or fresh eggs from our chicken coop. And every Sunday we will be at the same pew singing our hearts out and declaring our love for God. These are all just goals I hope to reach one day. I realize that the likelihood of them actually happening are very slim, but that won’t stop me from trying. I have seen so much growth and realization in myself especially over the past couple of years and I hope that it never ends. I pray that I grow a little bit every single day and continue to live my life open-minded to the ever changing world around me.After telling someone many of the obstacles I have been through, they usually tend to sympathise me which is not what I’m looking for in any way. There are countless of others who have endured so much more and I am grateful for all that I’ve been through. These hurdles in my life have given me the opportunity to be who I am. I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in the world. There has never been a time in my life where I was never not loved. My parents did the best they could to raise my sister and me. That and I’ve been spoiled by my grandparents since the day I was born. I have a great life full of so many opportunities that many others don’t. I have been through a lot, but I am damn sure God is going to challenge me further and I will tackle these new obstacles as they come. My plan for my future is just a goal. I may not ever have a tomorrow, so I plan on living each day to the fullest. The only concrete plan that I’m most sure of is that I will try my hardest every single to day to spread joy and kindness and love to everyone around me.