Brace yourself as you enter this blog post! WARNING: Feelings, goals, dreams…everything girly and futuristic, plus some actual life goals. I’m getting teary eyed just writing this post, so it’s about to get gushy, but for the best reasons. This quote hit hard as I was scrolling through Pinterest the other day, and it made me teary eyed too! I’ve seen it before and read it a million times, but as I get older, this has more and more meaning…
“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t happened yet.”
AHHH. This gives me life. I used to read this quote when I was younger and dream about the future and everything that I hoped it would be. Since I am turning 20 on Saturday, I feel like I am entering into a new chapter in life that holds a lot of new and exciting adventures. I can’t tell you what the future holds, but I can tell you my goals, hopes, and dreams for my future. I cry for the reason being every year of life is so bitter sweet, and life is precious. The fact that I get to live the life that I do is a gift in itself. Time to get mushy gushy. 🙂
(In no particular order!)
1. Travel
I have been lucky enough to go to London, France, Germany, Switzerland, Hawaii, and so many more wonderful places. I hope this list continues to grow for me and that I can travel the world as the years go on. Traveling with my other half is definitely on the to-do list, and also to travel with my family. Nothing beats family vacations.
2. Save Save Save.
Ha. After I tell you I want to travel the world which costs money 😉 For being the age that I am, my financial situation couldn’t be better. I’m not going to go into personal details, but saving money and putting it aside every now and then should be everyone’s goal. In this day and age, living is expensive, especially in Orange County, so saving for my dream house on Pinterest (which you can see here) is a must.
3. Learn to Cook!
It’s not that I don’t know how to cook. If I was responsible for making dinner, I could. (Yes Nicole, I know you are reading this! I really can do it! ;)) I just really don’t enjoy it. But, when you get a little further into the post, you’ll realize why I need to learn how. Regardless of my reasons, I feel like its a life essential to at least know how to whip up a couple meals. Even if I have my personal chef one day… #dreaming
4. Finish Up My Education…For Now.
If you’ve been reading my blog from the start, you know that on my about me page I mentioned going into the Human Services Field. I took a class this past semester that really sparked an interest in working in the Criminal Justice area and also the Social Work field. After lingering in the interest for awhile, I realized that it was more of an interest then something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After finishing up my two Associate’s Degrees this fall, I will be pursuing becoming a Postpartum Doula. Along with other certifications in being a night nurse, lactation consultant, and a newborn specialist. Me being excited is an understatement! This doesn’t require a Bachelor’s Degree, but that doesn’t mean I’ll never get one. My personal view on it, is I don’t want to waste money going to get a degree in something I won’t use or something thats random. It’s not worth the money to me!
5. Learn To Say No.
I have a hard time with this one which is why its a goal. I am constantly booked– CONSTANTLY. My life is non-stop all the time, with work, my personal life, all of it. I am 100% an introvert so learning to say no is something I have to do in order to get time to myself. I would personally like to have this weekly instead of struggling to find time to do it.
6. Organization.
I am always organized, have you seen my planner? 😉 As life goes on though, life can get more hectic. Its a goal of mine to keep this going throughout my twenties, because having a planner is my life! I don’t think I’ll have that much trouble keeping this one around, but this is also something that can get lost after awhile. I’ll let you know how it goes when I turn 30 lol. 😉
7. Healthy Diet.
I hope someday I can trash all my junk food and not want to run out at 9 o’clock at night to buy cookie dough. I am still currently in that phase. It’s in my dreams to be a healthy person, who can eat vegetables and salads all day. This probably will never happen, but I’m hoping as I get older I can get into better eating habits which brings me back to learning how to cook. A lot of the healthy things I like to eat don’t require a large amount of cooking, which is always a good thing! But less donuts and cookie dough. Thats a good goal right?! HA!
8. Family Time
This is so important! When I was little, it was automatically built in. I didn’t have a car and it was hard to go places. Now that I’m older, I have a car and I drive places and go to work, so I rarely am ever home. It’s important to me that I need to make it more of a priority because family is #1 and for me they have all been there for me from the start- through the good and the bad. The more family time the better 🙂
9. Exercise
I’ve been going to Orange Theory, but since we’re being honest here…it is SO expensive. My post went up earlier this week about it, and you can read that here. I need someone yelling at me and I need to be in the right setting. Regardless of all the excuses I make up, I need and want to be healthy so this is a goal because I want it to be more apart of my life.
10. Wake Up Early
This might sound crazy, but I work better when I have a routine. Sleeping in is awesome, and I love doing it on the weekends especially, but I feel like if I sleep past a certain time it’s a waste of the day. When I stay up late the night before, getting up early the next day is a drag. It’s the best feeling though when you wake up before everyone else and feel good… call me crazy but it’s so refreshing!
11. Go To Bed Early
This goes along with #10. If you know me, you know I really don’t enjoy being up late. I am a total grump when I get no sleep and also I get sick! My schedule is so crazy that I don’t have time to be sick. But let’s be honest…I just love sleep. Waking up early causes me to not waste my day and going to bed early let’s my introvert side be content. I need to continue this into my 20’s considering I am getting older 😉
12. Read More
I lost my love for reading during high school because the book assignments started to get piled on. It became apart of a routine instead of something I did during my free time. Now that school is coming closer to an end, I would like to incorporate it back in slowly so I don’t feel forced. Everyone needs to read a good book every once in awhile!
13. Read The Bible
Like, I said, we’re being honest here… I have tried multiple times to do one of those plans where you can read the bible in a year. It is not easy. With the plans I have attempted to start, there are multiple scriptures a day and I personally like to take notes and kind of dig through them. I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again- my life is crazy so setting aside time to do this everyday isn’t an easy thing. I would rather do it completed than half ass it just to say I read it. Some people may think this is cheating, or that it isn’t a priority, but it doesn’t mean any of that. It takes courage to sit down and do that, and so I am hoping in my 20’s my time will come to study it a little more.
14. Know Jesus Better
Coming along with reading the bible comes knowing Jesus. Religion has not been apart of my life from the beginning, and when I say that I mean it wasn’t consistent. I didn’t go to Church every Sunday, and after elementary school it was just around me, nothing was strictly in my life. When I got into college I made the decision that I wanted to practice Christianity, find a church to be apart of, and follow God. I haven’t read the bible. I’m somewhat new to it. I don’t know all of the stories, and I don’t have anything memorized from the bible. None of this makes you a good Christian and none of it is required, but I have always felt like I don’t know a lot and I WANT to know more. Strengthening my faith and relationship with Jesus is definitely towards the top of my list!
15. Marriage
First comes love, then comes marriage… 🙂 ever since I was a little girl I have DREAMED of this time of my life. I’ve been planning my wedding for as long as I can remember, and my Pinterest boards are full of ideas! The older I get the closer it’s getting, which makes me smile from ear to ear. I can’t plan the future but I would like to be married waaay before I am 30!
16. Be A Mom
Then comes a baby in a baby carriage! If I haven’t mentioned this before, it has always been a goal for me to be finished having kids by the time I’m 30. Hence why I want to be married waaay before I am 30! I have always wanted a large family, and when I say that I mean since I was little I have wanted six kids, ha. The older I get the more I realize how hard that is. I felt like an interesting goal would to be to have 3 kids before I am 30, and then when they’re in school get baby fever and have number 4 in my thirties. Oh how my brain works. 😉 On a serious note though, I feel like my purpose in life is to be a mother, so I’ve literally been waiting my whole life! This is probably the part that makes me the most teary eyed (besides getting married) because it is getting closer! Not that I have a set date you know, but it is closer then further!
17. Buy A House
This is a bigger goal to have, but I hope to accomplish it in the next ten years. This goes along with other life things like marriage and children, but it definitely has a big expense on it! Like I said earlier these goals are in no particular order, so a house will (hopefully) come before or around the other things, but hey…can’t plan the future!
18. Buy A Car
In the next ten years I would eventually like to upgrade my car for multiple reasons. I’m a nanny now and driving around kids in my four door sedan is already a pain. I can’t imagine how even bigger the pain will be when I have my own kids! I prefer to sit high up, and would love to own a bigger car. The car I have right now works perfectly fine but I wouldn’t mind getting a newer one sooner than later 😉
19. Love Myself More
I struggled with this a lot when I was younger, but as I have gotten older I have improved a lot. I struggled with who I wanted to be, and I think everyone goes through that. Trying to find your way as a middle schooler and high schooler can get confusing, and I realized it probably my senior year of high school. I always knew who I was, I just tended to get pulled in different directions depending on the people I was hanging out with. I finally realized I was tired of trying to keep up with everyone else, and I started to know my worth and who I was. At first I thought I was settling, but I wasn’t even close. I am ME and I LOVE who I am! There is no shame in that and I love having a healthy balance. It makes life that much better!
20. Spread Happiness
I love being someones reason to smile, so it is one of my goals to make this happen even more in my 20’s. Nobody needs a negative nancy, and if I can be that light in somebodies day, I’m going to try my best to make it happen! One of my favorite quotes is, “You were created to make somebody else’s life better. Somebody needs what you have– your smile, your love, your words, & your encouragement.” Amen to that!
Alright, so reading through it probably wasn’t as mushy gushy to you, but it made me smile thinking about this new chapter ahead of me! Heres to the best days of my life that are yet to come…
XO,
Danielle Alana
