Sheep
Is there anyone on this planet who doesn't have a list of goals that include just moving in with someone, marriage, kids, and a house with a white picket fence? Even people who claim to be unconventional and non-traditional have the exact same life goals, the goals society dictates and deems 'successful.' It makes me sad.
I am not saying it is wrong to have these goals if that is the way you truly feel, but it is if you only have them due to social pressures, including pressure from family. You know what happens when you push yourself into doing something you are not ready for or something you really do not want? You end up like someone I know named Chris. He is 28, has been married for a couple of years, lives with his wife in a nice house, has one daughter and one on the way... and the kicker... has been cheating on his wife this entire time with, mostly, underage girls. He bluntly admitted to me that he did not want to get married, but his parents were pressuring him, as was his age, and so he just did it. Now he is having his cake and eating it too.
I hope he is poisoned.
I feel extremely outcasted and alone in terms of my life goals. And really, I can sense I will probably end up alone because I do not happen to see things the way everyone else does. It is constantly being held against me and I am constantly being criticised for it. No marriage and no kids, for me, does not equal loneliness. I am not anti-love or anti-companionship. I just want to go about it in a different way. I do not feel there should be all these numbered 'steps' (first moving in, then marriage, then kids) in a relationship to feel it is being taken to new levels. Why can't sharing new experiences together be considered a step forward? If there is a pre-determined set of expectations for a relationship, you are going to miss out on an awful lot of things. You will also probably end up rushing into a lot of these things, thinking you only have a certain amount of time to accomplish them. For example, how about being financially stable before popping out a child?
These issues are coming up too often for my liking. I am only twenty-one and these things, whether I want them are not, are far, far away in the future. I am a career-oriented person and having a family, whether I change my mind or not, is not something I want or need to be thinking about right now. But suddenly there is all this pressure and I cannot seem to make it stop.
I have a feeling a lot of people reading this may not have a pre-determined life goal list. So please, enlighten me. Please tell me what else is on your life goal list, other than the things above. Please give me hope that not everyone's list is empty aside from these typical, conventional things.