Some plans are meant to fail

As spring break fades into just a memory and finals loom ominously behind the next six weeks, I have been thinking a lot about the concept of planning.

We spend four to five years of our lives in college carefully planning our future. We slave to our professors’ every whim praying that we pass our classes and hoping that by the time we’re done, we somewhat enjoy the career path we spent all this time working toward.

But how do we plan for when things don’t work out the way we want them to? What if we don’t get that internship we were banking on or we don’t pass that class and get kicked out of our major? I’ve been told to have a Plan B, but what if that fails? Do we need a Plan C, D, E, F, G and so on?

Life happens, and it doesn’t always work out the way we plan it to. When I graduated high school, I was planning on being a surgical technician and a career in the medical field. While I did become a certified surgical technician, I didn’t stay one, and I didn’t further my career in the medical field.

In other words, my plans did not work out the way I expected them to. I gave it my all. I stayed up late some nights agonizing about it but in the end realized that this plan wasn’t going to work.

But just because something doesn’t work out the way we planned it doesn’t mean our efforts were wasted. Maybe life is just meant to be series of plans. Some will fail, but maybe the failed plans work just as well to get us to the point where we want to be as the successful ones do.

What I have found out through my failures has been just as valuable as my successes. I found that I can work my butt off to accomplish my goals. I can pick myself back up when it feels like the world just ended and keep going. I can do anything it takes to get to where I want to be in life. And if I can realize this, anyone can.

I don’t need to rant off all the quotes that say it better, but life is unpredictable. Don’t get me wrong — plans are necessary. Plans make us feel like we are in control and going somewhere. And I’d say a lot of plans work out and give us an amazing feeling of accomplishment and purpose.

But plans are not always concrete and that’s OK. If you have to scratch off a plan in order to get something better, something that will make you happier in the end, do it.

Otherwise, keep trying. Life is about trying and succeeding and trying and failing. Not everything will work out perfect all the time, but that’s OK. Failure, though it stings like hell, can work for good just as much as success can.

— Katherine Lambert is a print journalism major minoring in random thought promotion. She enjoys running, swimming, reading long books and eating Peeps. You can email her at katherine.l.larsen@gmail.com.