Getting My Life Together

I am 20 years old. I need to get my life together.

20 might sound like a young age, I mean, it is the first thing after the 'teen years', but this is how I think of being 20 years old:

Right now I'm 20. Before I know it I will be 25, and 25 is not too far from 30. By 30 I should definately be established in my career, have a home, vehicle, possibly a family. If I don't have a hint of any of those things by the age of 25, then something is seriously wrong. If I don't start working toward those things by the age of 20, by the time I turn 30 I will seriously be screwed.

I mean, I should get my Bachelor's by the age of 21. If I follow my plan A, I will have my first year of Grad School done by 22, then my Peace Corps service will be done by 24, finishing my Masters at age 25. Having Peace Corps and a Master's degree under my belt, a job/potential career shouldn't be too difficult to get ahold of, so I give myself about 3 years to find that career that I will be at for the majority of my adult years. If I have my career by 28, I will roll into my 30's without any problem.

Well, at least hopefully not any problems career-wise. I mean, you've got your variables such as sickness, family issues, pregnancy, job outlook. . .etc. But if I do my best to get my life together now, those variables won't throw me off as much.

Now, at this moment in time, RIGHT NOW I need to get my life together on a short-term note. This time leading up to finals can potentially drive me to take medication if I don't manage my time well (I need to be on a Facebook diet) and get stuff done. For example, I need to work extra hard to read these 200 pages of a book about the theory of the evolution of the gay/lesbian rights movement as both an identity movement and a social movement. Yeah. And write a paper on it that' s due Tuesday. Yeah. So here's how I think about it:

If I don't read this book, I could still try and do the paper on it, and get another (yes, another) D, or I could not do the paper at all, get an F, then for sure not raise my grade in the class. I'd probably get a D out of the class, which would lower the GPA I'm trying to raise in order to get into grad school by the age of 21. . . .you can see where this is going. (Slippery slope? yes. I always do this.)

So basically, if I don't read this book I could seriously be messing up my chances of getting into grad school. That's how I think of it.

Hey, I'm 20. It's time. I gotta get my life together.