Facing the unknown

Facing the unknown is the most daunting thing we can do. It only occurred to me fairly recently that, as opposed to having a plan – a set plan in store for when (if) i graduate from university. As a business student i should know what I want to do with my life after university, right?  For me, I prefer to have my future as sort of a "multiple choice". I have, at most, the "ghost" of a plan for my future. I could go into teaching, travel the world and "find myself" or I could finally start my business that I've been planning for a while. 

In coming to Japan, I have completed a lifelong dream. It's funny, because I was so focused in just getting to Japan that I didn't consider what I was going to do next. As if once I got here everything would just be sorted, as if I didn't have to go to university or actually learn Japanese. 

It has only recently occurred to me that this shallow planning  has plagued me for a long time. I would always have 60 - 70% planned and just hope the rest would work out somehow. 

However, following this, I reflected further on this method of planning and saw that the opportunity this presented for my self-development. One of my favourite topics to discuss with my friends is the future. What kind of people will we be? What if this, or that happened?  A lot of the Japanese students that I have discussed this with have been fairly pessimistic on this subject.  And a part of me related to this greatly. The future is scary, we don't know for sure, who we are going to be, or what we are going to do. What we know is that if we do not get a job, we're going to end up poor and hungry. We know for certain the less desirable things in life. Like, I know for a fact that i'm gonna have to pay my bills ten years from now. I don't necessarily know where i'm gonna live, or where i'm going to work.  This blows my mind. That we know the liabilities we are going to rack up in the future, but on anything else, it is unknown. 

What changed in me, was my understanding of the unknown. I used to think of the unknown only in terms of the negative. As I've grown and considered my place in the world, I have gained a new confidence in myself. When looking towards the future, I consider the implications of what it means for me to be alive to this day. Being a Black British Caribbean man implies a long, strong history. And that gives me confidence when facing the future, I remain unsure of how the future will go. Not knowing completely what i'm going to do in the future, is more of an implication of my unexplored potential.

Okay, so as I get bored of writing, and hungry. I suggest this:

Think of not knowing what to do in the future as mere simply a symptom of having too many options.