how has your life as an adult turned out differently than what you had anticipated in high school?

wow. my life is completely different than i thought it would be.

i started college as a biology major. i was planning on getting my core classes done at Purdue and then transferring somewhere in either florida or california where i could get my degree in marine biology/oceanography. my goal was to work with dolphins.

then life happened. i ended up working at a craptactular "newspaper" run by my cousins fiance. what had started out as a part-time job as a writer turned into a more than full-time position as the editor-in-chief/whipping-post overnight. i had no experience other than being on the newspaper and yearbook staffs in high school - and suddenly i had to find a way to put out a paper (with 9 different zones) each week, with absolutely no help. i was the only writer, ad designer, proofreader, photographer, layout designer - you name it, i had to do it. and this was back when you had to glue the layout together and then take it to the printer (also, my job.) did i mention i was also a full time college student? 5 classes plus biology labs. having a boss that never graduated high school - he didn't have much tolerance for anything "school-related" and if i happened to bring it up, he somehow found more work for me to do. it took me a month to get him to agree to hire my friend to help me. no longer having to write the stories helped some, but not enough. by the time i found it in me to leave that job, whatever confidence i had was shattered. i was pretty much broken and had no clue what i wanted anymore. i had failed advanced chemistry and decided that biology wasn't the right path for me.

i took the next semester to take a sampling of classes, trying to figure out the right fit. i thought about switching my major to history, but my inability to remember dates made me rethink that. i also considered english and journalism - but never thought i was a good enough writer to succeed. then i heard about this new program - graphic design. i've always been considered the artistic, creative one in my family. my whole life i've had both my grandfathers tell me i should go into art when i grew up. so i decided i'd take a couple of classes and see if i liked it. more importantly, to see if i was any good at it. i was basically walking head first into the same area that i had been told, repeatedly on a daily basis, that i was horrible at. even when you know someone is saying these incredibly hurtful things to you just because they can get away with it, it still leaves scars. and i was full of them. so to make that decision to go into graphic design ... i still don't know how i did that. but i'm glad i did.

i also thought that i would definitely be married with kids by now. being almost 30 and single is just unheard of in my family. meh.

so, my life is drastically different than what i had anticipated in high school. life is funny that way. and what did i know back then anyway? i was in high school!