Here was my plan:<\/strong><\/p>\n Being a stay at home mom has been my dream ever since I can remember. I built my life around the assumption that that is what I would be doing. Because of that I didn\u2019t prepare very effectively for taking care of myself and being able to support myself financially when a husband did not materialize for me.<\/p>\n I went to college planning to find a husband. Yeah, I was that girl \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n But in the meantime, I needed something to focus my energy on. I had been writing stories since I was a child. I struggled with socializing and communicating with people and I found that I was much more effective at it in writing than any other method. (I learned much later that I\u2019m on the edge of the Asperger\u2019s<\/a> scale). Telling stories was the way I connected with other people and so I figured if I needed to have a career plan, writing would be it.<\/p>\n Not journalism. Research sounded like a drag! I just wanted to tell stories. So that\u2019s the plan that developed as I waited for marriage. I would be a novelist.<\/p>\n So where am I now?<\/strong><\/p>\n Pretty depressing. However, the silver lining is that I\u2019m making great progress towards getting myself where I want to be. I\u2019m so tantalizingly close to the life that I want!\u00a0<\/strong>I guess it takes patience and it takes faith to get there.<\/p>\n 1) I\u2019m finally getting married<\/a> at the definitely old-maid age of 31. But I can honestly see now that I was not prepared for marriage before and I would have been miserable with any of the previous guys I considered (not due to them in most cases). I did not understand the importance of compatibility through most of my twenties. I also had a lot of adjusting<\/a> to do to function in the modern world. In a lot of ways it was like I stepped from 1900 directly to 2000.<\/p>\n My husband-to-be really \u201cgets\u201d me. He lets me be me in all my kooky eccentricity. I realized some time in my twenties while living alone that I kind of really suck at the cleaning and tidying side of being a housewife. I was never cut out for that. I am not detail oriented and often don\u2019t actually notice mess (yes, I\u2019m blaming this on Aspiness<\/a>!).<\/p>\n 2) I\u2019m finally in the right circumstances that I can start trying for children. I\u2019m so excited to start that journey. My best friend had her first child a few months ago and it is such a delight to hang out with them and plan for when I can give my \u201cniece\u201d a playmate. I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ll make it to four kids like I always wanted. Partly because I\u2019m starting late (although my family has a history of crazy amounts of fertility), but mostly because I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ll ever be able to financially support more than two. Plus I worry about the environment and I don\u2019t feel right about adding to over population of the planet. (Sure wish I didn\u2019t have that\u00a0conscience\u00a0 because I totally want a Dugger<\/a> family with, like, fifteen kids!)<\/p>\n 3) Another discovery that I\u2019ve made about myself over the last decade is that I don\u2019t do well working for other people. I start out fine, but after a few months I start getting bored and also feeling\u00a0suffocated\u00a0and trapped. I\u2019ve rarely stayed at a job more than one year in my whole life. The job I\u2019m at now I\u2019ve been at for more than three! I\u2019m going absolutely stir crazy there. Especially because my job involves little beyond data entry. I don\u2019t have a head for numbers; I\u2019m definitely a creative type. Not only am I bored, but my boss finds something wrong with my work every single day. I want to do better, but nothing seems to help me to get there. So I just feel deeply discouraged. However, I have still been writing and publishing books.<\/p>\n It takes a while to get a career going as an author, but it is actually possible. More possible now than ever before with the popularity of the Kindle. Over the summer I started my own publishing company<\/a>. I\u2019m publishing my own books and stories, but I\u2019m also publishing a few other people\u2019s. I have a niche genre which means little competition and the authors I have so far are friends who share my interests.<\/p>\n I\u2019m really hoping to develop and build this business to the point where I can leave my office job.\u00a0Particularly\u00a0when I get pregnant! I want to be able to work from home by the time I have kids and I\u2019m not willing to wait to start trying for kids! I have this blog and I\u2019ve been finding odd<\/a> and off-ball<\/a> ways of making money from home. I am fanatically frugal and couponing is a hobby of mine. It\u2019s not enough yet, but I need it to be enough money soon!<\/p>\n So, that is my progress report for my 31st birthday. Things are going well and they are on track to get even better. Life didn\u2019t follow the path I planned for, but it has given me greater gifts than I expected. I wish I could reach back to my 21-year-old self and tell her that things are going to be fine and in ten years she\u2019ll be happier than she\u2019s ever been before.<\/p>\n\n
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<\/a>To me \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n