We're All Just Trying to Figure it Out

My 6 weeks of backpacking Europe has now concluded. I am still in Europe, but currently remaining in one of my favorite places: Finland. Along my travels and especially here in Finland I have had some time to think about what I want to do with my life.

Currently I don't have plans other than travel plans. I am constantly questioned about what I want to do for work and where I want to live. I find myself responding with "I don't know". Why should I need to know right now? I am in the process of figuring it out.

As I walked the streets of Rome and swam in the Mediterranean and hiked the mountains of Switzerland I realized that no one truly knows what they are doing.

I came to a realization while backpacking. It hit me like a brick, just one of those moments where you think "Holy shit". Of course, I know that I've legally been an adult for 3 years already, but I just started thinking that now I'm at the point in life where I am actually starting to feel like one. I finished college and started exploring Europe without anyone else's guidance for the first time. Traveling has made me feel like an adult for the first time.

I'm on the edge of still feeling my teenage youthfulness and new adult responsibilities. I just found it crazy that I was exploring all of these countries at such a young age and as I looked around and tried to problem solve I realized that all the adults around me were having to problem solve all the same. No one really knows what they are doing.

It's all the same in life. Everyone is just trying to do their best. Going to school, taking jobs that are offered to them, and accepting the love they think they deserve. We don't need to know where we are going in life constantly. I used to think that I did. I used to obsess over planning out every step of my life. Now i've realized that sometimes it's fun to just let go of the pressure and enjoy figuring it out as we go.

Now is the time while we are young to figure out what we want. I wanted to backpack Europe, and so I did.

I went clubbing in Barcelona

Made friends with locals in the South of France

Ate my way through Italy

Went swimming in the Amalfi Coast at 5 am after clubbing all night

And saw some of the most amazing sights in Switzerland

All the while I made lots of new lifelong friends and memories. I figured it out as I went along.

So for now I'll bartend in Finland and continue to chase my travel aspirations. I'll continue to tell people who ask what my next step is "I don't know." And I'll keep smiling as they give me a worried look.