Unexpected

So this is the future.

2015. Hoverboards. Advanced architecture. Self-lacing shoes. The moment we've all been waiting for. And...well, it's not. In fact, it's pretty far from that. Granted, it's only been just over a week in to the new year. A year that, quite frankly, crept up faster than I would have ever expected. Perhaps what strikes me even harder is the amount of growth that has come through in just a year. Only last year was I beginning to take my first steps towards being done with high school. Fast forward and now I'm 6 months into adulthood. Full time job and looking for a place of my own to live. That's...not really something that I ever really envisioned myself being anywhere in the near future, and yet...it's already here. 2015. A fresh start. Time to get all of my ducks in a row and pursue what I will ultimately end up spending the rest of my life doing.

At least, in theory.

What a concept. 18 years old and I'm already being pushed to make decisions that will affect the 50+ years to come. Pretty high expectations if you ask me. Not necessarily expectations I would have put on myself, but expectations nonetheless. But...whose expectations are they? What looming chart of successes and failures is held over our heads to feel that pressure to do the things we are forced to do so early in life? Are we simply characters within the choose-your-own-adventure book, or is our plot already written? Well, really our own decisions are exactly that - our own. We can't necessarily blame the outside factors associated with decision making. These derive from our own judgement. If only it were as easy to flip through the pages to find the best outcome and our happily ever after.

But does any of that even matter?

Why stress so much importance on the meticulous and often mundane decisions that form the lives we live? Obviously a reckless mindset isn't the most suitable one for our well being. However, every single day, people like you and me spend so much time worrying about the decisions that we make or the decisions that we will make. This even affects us to the point where we are affected by other's decisions. We live in a world centralized around the concept of choice. Merely a toss of the dice in some cases. So much so that we fear what is to come that we don't even need to make decisions about. A constant stress. Is it worth it?

Then why live a life that is based around this mentality?

2014 taught me something no other year has yet to teach me. A decision does not have to make or break your world. In fact, it shouldn't. Nor should that of anyone else's. I spent a very fair portion of the end of the year conflicted between mine and other's choices. Tested friendships and morals. And, y'know, it is really, really tough. To know that those you care about, those who you would do anything for...there is no decision you can make to save them. But does that mean this story line has concluded? Maybe it's about time to write our own books. Our future has not even begun the first draft of what our biographies will become. Expectations will change, just as they have from years ago. The expectations from 30 years ago of 2015 certainly did not meet with what they have become, but does that make the world any less incredible? No. So why do the same to yourself? Break the bounds of expectation.

Here's to an unexpected 2015.