24 Years - Life

This is me on the first (full) day of my 24th year.

Holy Shiz. You know when you're a little girl playing with your tea set, with your stuffed purple rabbit and various other cotton infused friends all sitting on a blanket on the floor of you, and your older sisters bedroom, and you think about how one day you will grow up and be an adult with a job and a car but you never really think it will ever happen in real life??

That's how I feel about being 24. I NEVER thought I would turn 24.. I mean you hear about people doing it but you never think it will happen to you.. Until one day it does..and you realize you're 24. So upon embarking on this crazy new year, I decided I want my life to be about fulfilling my personal goals and giving the bird to the achievements that the world says you should achieve. If I never have a corporate level career, if I never have a dainty diamond engagement ring to show off, if I never sit around a fancy restaurant having lunch with ladies talking about our toddlers and Pinterest recipes, I'm pretty sure I will feel insanely fulfilled nonetheless if not doing these things the world says I should be doing.

(This comes from the people who ask if I am dating someone yet and then give me a pitiful look when I answer and respond by encouraging me, "Well, you are still so young, you've got plenty of time!" .. Hmm thanks?) Only in Utah is a 24 yr old a spinster. But more than that I don't want to dwell on the typical life goals I have yet to achieve because of whatever circumstances that haven't been available to me. I want to work towards more than the checklist of a glazed over life such as
1. Career
2. Marriage
3. Eternal bliss, dog, family, house, car.
4. Death

How about things more like:

I want to be continually exploring this world. Traveling and learning.
I want to have a job that I can exercise my strengths in and feel progressive and valued, no matter what the status.
I want to help people daily. In any way, form, shape. Just be a source of relief to someone everyday.
I want to always be learning, creating, growing, experimenting, feeling.
I want to love in a real way, deeply and knowingly, so that it is a source of security and stability instead of anxiety.

I'm not really sure what 24 will bring or the rest of my life. This is the year I graduate college and start to live my life the way I've always dreamed of. Usain bolt's got nothing on chasing my goals, peeps!