Don’t Use a Road Map, Use a Compass

Leave space in your journey for adventure and catastrophe

“Life is nothing without a little chaos to make it interesting.” ― Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Demon in My View

It’s possibly the most pervasive question of our time, and one which ascribes undue importance to the idea of a plan.

“What do you plan to do after school?”

Every high school, university, and college student who is approaching graduation has heard the question. YOU have probably heard the question.

You may have even asked the question.

On the surface it appears like a valid question, born out of concern for a person’s future well-being.

It’s actually a question that is born out of unspoken assumptions about privilege, class, and education. It’s a question that perpetuates the belief that life is scripted and mapped before we’ve even begun to live it.

The assumption that life is even able to be mapped out, much less that anyone is able to draw a map of their life when they’ve lived less than twenty percent of it, is absurd.

In order to draw a map, you first have to travel the path you are mapping, or at least be able to see it. The interdependent complexity of human lives means that even the little bits we can see coming are subject to change by forces outside of our control.

These changes can push us off of the well-trod path we expected to take, and into rabbit warrens of mental health, financial troubles, legal troubles, and personal upheaval. Through no fault of your own, you may find yourself hacking through some of the toughest brush that anyone has ever had to face.

Just because you are on a well-trod path through life doesn’t mean you will always be on it.

Truth be told, life on the well-trod path is easy, but isn’t always interesting. Every person you know has had some type of unexpected push off of the path and into an unexpected thicket of branches.

Living life while in a rabbit warren of unexpected occurrences isn’t easy, nor is it always safe.

People don’t always make it out alive.

Actually, whether we are on the well-trod path or not, none of us make it out alive.

So ditch the map and leave space for some fun and adventure. Navigate your way through life with a compass instead.

It takes some practice to navigate with a compass, both in the wilderness and in life. It’s better to start practising sooner rather than later.

Look around you.

Find your next destination.

Maybe it’s more schooling… Maybe it’s marriage… Maybe it’s a new career… Maybe it’s retirement… Maybe it’s something else…

Fix that destination in your mind.

Now, find your own way there. Mind the warnings and signs around you, especially if they warn of danger.

You don’t want to arrive at your final destination too early…

Explore along the way, and when you get pushed off the path by something outside of your control remember your destination and start off again in that direction.

Embrace the chaos and have an adventure along the way.