Mega-blog 1 of 2: Expect the Unexpected
Since experience has led me to expect the unexpected, I can say with some confidence that the following predictions, thankfully, are to be expected…
It’s a chain reaction. First, I have to start paying back the student loans. I will be taking time off from work and in combination with all of the current bills, now I have to start paying back the roughly $48,000 worth of student loan debt. Was it all even worth it? Only time will tell. The future will prove that college was largely a waste of time, energy and most significantly, a waste of my money. Four years of education for what? A struggle to even find a job in meteorology whatsoever, let alone one that pays well? The job search is going to be a waste of time and although some minor opportunities may arise, I will never find a good job as a meteorologist that will be both fulfilling emotionally and financially.
With financial burdens increasing, I will be forced to move into a smaller apartment. With the smaller apartment will also come a roommate or two. I may be friends with the roommate(s), but tensions will rise. It will either be a difficult period of time for all of us or things will simply just break away and leave me alone again to pay more bills than I can afford. I will not move back home, but I will not be able to support myself in a decently sized apartment with some privacy for myself.
The car, which will have over 150,000 miles before 2008 is over, will inevitably begin to have more frequently problems as we head into the 2010s. Without a good job or even flexibility, I will be forced to keep the car and struggle to get repairs and routine maintenance. The only problem, the routine maintenance will give way to excessive and reoccurring maintenance.
My life savings will become the money I use for the cost of living and the majority of my bills, loans, etc to pay. The life savings may look substantial early on, but the times of having plenty of money saved will become a thing of the past. The savings will not help pay off a chunk of the student loans, but will actually become a crutch in my very existence. Without this money, there is no life. As the money fades away, the harsh realities of major debt will gradually ease in.
With my life in disarray and the future bleak, I will continue to try to work things out in my own life. Dating will remain on the back-burner and I will stay single. If by some rare chance I do meet someone, it will not work out or it will further complicate matters. As has been the past, it will end suddenly. The breakup won’t be as bad as some previous ones and my ex will actually keep being my friend afterwards, but the whole ordeal will wind up to be just memories and good times, nothing more and nothing less. A future of no serious, long-term relationships will continue.
An aging man will grow older and older. A life that blows away in the wind, beginning to topple down and deteriorate over time, will become reality. No successful job, debt to remain for decades and no family of his own to start. Friendships will come and go and family members will fade away and perish. Memories will not be forgotten, but an eventual end will be approaching. A life of good times, mediocrity and as is the American way, plenty of debt. Health issues may not be of immediate concern, but if any should arise, life will only become that much more difficult.
As the above outlooks may be expected, this boy can continue to expect the unexpected. Fortunately, for him and all those surrounding his life, the story of his future life has not and cannot be written. Not yet, not tomorrow and not until his life has ended. Then, at that time, a reflective story can outline the events of the timeline: his life, his very existence, his memories, his breaths, his friendships, his breakups, his misfortunes, his mistakes, his lessons learned and most importantly, his legacy as a person on this earth.
Expect the unexpected. Things never work out exactly as you predict.