Ready, Set, Go!

I have decided the initial shock of turning 25 must be wearing off because I have begun to set both short and long term goals for myself. I think I had everything all planned out (as if it was in my control) but when I did most of what I set out to do I didn't know what the heck to do next...

I honestly thought that I would graduate college at 21, get engaged at 23, married at 25, buy a house and have my first child at 27, second at 29 and if I could convince my husband to have a third I would be 33. The 33 comes from letting myself, my house etc. recover from having the first two so close together! However, as pretty as that was in my head here's how it played out.

21: working full time and in the process of a divorce
22: working two jobs, going to school
23: back in houston area teaching, engaged
24: calling off engagement and changing school districts, moving
25: dating, living alone in an apartment with my first dog and my cat

So much for MY plan! The pastor at the church I attend always says that God must be saying to us...."Well yeah, that's a nice plan, but it's not my plan." I can attest to that! I am beginning to look forward to plans for myself starting with where I am right now and through some consultation in prayer. The Big Guy and I disagree a lot of times on things..especially the whole "patience is a virtue." God must be one pretty stubborn guy if I am made in his image!

Here is a glimpse of things to come for me in the next year or so:

1. Move into a cheaper apartment
2. Pay off credit card debt
3. Find a church that has a "place" for me
4. Take the GRE
5. Apply and become accepted to Texas Women's Univeristy online graduate program
6. Run in the Houston Half Marathon----take that Fibro!
7. Buy my own house
8. Live for myself
9. Pray Daily
10. Tithe regularly

I think these goals are much more appropriate for me at this time in my life than the others were. They also seem to have a lot more to do with being a better servant to God and doing things for me not for the purpose of having a husband and children.

***Disclaimer***Yes, I still want to be married and have children but I know those things will come when the time is right.

Who wants to live their life being a Charlotte? (Sex and the City reference...Traci you are Charlotte in the good ways, not the husband hunting ways!) For now, I'd like to focus on me and what I can do as an independent twenty-something woman. Ten years from now I want to know that I enjoyed my twenties and continued to grow as a person throughout them as opposed to dwell on the earlier half of them.

I am ready. I am set. Here I go!