“Check me on this,” I say. And then say more. I want to know if my goals are realistic. I want to know if I’m being naive. I want to know if I’m doing the right things right now.
I’m impatient. What’s new?
So I’m seeking counsel. We all need people who we deeply trust — who love us enough to be real with us, whose example and experience qualifies them to give advice. I’m lucky that both my parents meet that for me.
I spent a weekend in Chicago two weeks ago venting and listening to my Mom. When my dad overnighted in Austin yesterday I took the opportunity to lay out my questions for him as well: money questions, investment questions, reality check questions.
Breathe. It’s fun to have a plan but I need to ground myself. I would call this phase “information gathering.” With my parents, I can lay out personal plans, but I’m eager to talk to others about certain experiences – being a single or adoptive parent, for one.
I’ve always run at things a little too fast. It’s been a good thing and a bad thing. (Career, good. Marriage, bad). I still have trouble discerning the distinction.
Which is why I ask more questions now. (I certainly wasn’t asking anyone’s advice about getting married at 22 . . . in fact, I was actively avoiding advice). I want to understand my choices and that starts with realizing I don’t even know all my choices. There are so many paths to the same endpoint: happiness, family, a home by the lake.
And all my plans may change. As I’m often reminded, I have time.
With Love,
Natalie