Society's Rules

I'm not sure where this comes from, but I feel like in our society these days, there is only one aqcceptable way to make the transition from teenager to adult: graduate high school, take four years to do a university degree, get your master's, find that amazing job that leads to a career, get married and have kids.  I'm sure this pre-approved way of life is not anything new, I am just fully realising it now because it directly affects me.

As I said, I don't know who came up with it, who decided that that was the way, the only way to live your life and any deviation from the norm was to be frowned upon and not accepted.  But it was definitely a very present stigma in our society.  For example, when I tell people that I am in my fifth year of university, I immediately expect them to judge me: I must not be smart enough to do my B.Sc. in four years; I must be too poor to afford the tuition of a full course load.  I doubt people actually think that, especially fellow students who understand all too well just how difficult university is these days.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, other than that I am feeling the pressure now more than ever to adhere to society's very strict rules of how to live your life.  I know it's my life and there are likely more people out there who disagree with this "norm" than there are people who judge those who don't follow it.  Even just looking at my group of friends, I have several other friends who started university the same year as me who are in their fifth year; two of my good friends got married almost three years ago, while they were both still in school, and they have a son and another child on the way.  I can actually count on one hand the number of people I know personally who finished their bachelor's degree in four years.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like society in general has created some sort of normal way of living life that everyone is supposed to follow, and that I am not following at all.  This often makes me feel like I have somehow failed as a person or something, which I know is absolutely beyond ridiculous.  How I choose to live my life, how many years I spend doing my undergrad, what I choose as a career, all of that is my choice, it's up to me, and as long as it makes me happy then I don't really care what society thinks of my life.

Let me know if the comments if you ever feel this kind of pressure from society to live your life a certain way.

Days until summer: 7

Exams until summer: 3

Days until camp: 47

xo