“Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years?”

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” Honestly, I see myself chilling on a beach, cocktail in hand with an awesome bikini body and a handsome boyfriend with me, the kind they show in movies, the kind that looks at you as if his world would go dark if you stopped existing. 

It’s not realistic but if you ask me that question that’s where I see myself.  

I can’t really say that to anyone now, can I? At Least not in an interview when my life depends on that job. It is such a simple question though but very difficult to answer. I don’t know what I will be doing next weekend and you are asking me about 5 years down the line?

Even if I have a clear charted, path for my life for the next 10 years, who knows if it’s going to pan out that way. I know it’s hypothetical, it’s not like if what I say doesn’t happen, they will throw me in prison but it still sets an expectation. 

We imagine our life to be a certain way, everyone has a plan for what they want to do or where they want to be when they are 25, 30 or even 40 years old. That is not bad but the decisions we make today shape our future and when we make decisions based on what or how our life should be in 10 years we are probably making the right choice.

We assume that our current decisions will result in our envisioned future but how do you know that? I have heard so many stories of people choosing education, jobs, the city they live in and sometimes the people they marry, not panning out as they imagined. 

We think that if I go to this college or take this job, my life will be set, it’s like betting on a horse or something but in this case we are betting on ourselves, making an investment and expecting a return.

Living in the present is a phrase that applies to partying or eating burgers but not to larger life choices. Planning for the future isn’t bad but going about life taking every step to make sure that nothing goes wrong even if you don’t like what you are currently doing is bad.

There is no guarantee that you will be successful if you do what you like, of course rationally doing what you like, but at least you won’t have many regrets looking back at your life.

Making smart choices will take you a long way but they just shouldn’t be based on some arbitrary future that you might not even want. As much as this sounds preachy, it also sounds impractical for people in a though spots who probably don’t have the privilege of making such decisions who just have to make the most of what’s there but I feel that there’s always a way to really find what you want to do and pursue it, there will always be a silver lining in whatever situation you are in, if you look for it.

© Vaishnavi

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