The Good Life and How I Plan to Get There

We talked about the good life this week in Colloquium. We split up into groups and made a list of the things the “good life” ought to consist of. Our assignment was to think about where we wanted to be in about 5 years, then come up with three goals, including one short-time goal, to help us get there.

The best life, I think, is one full of people I love and people who love me. This is such a precious gift, and I have realized over time that it brings more joy and satisfaction to me than almost anything else. I could be poor, I could be ill, or I could be drowning in work, but if I was surrounded by my family and by marvelous friends, I would consider myself blessed beyond all thought. Similarly, if I were rich and healthy, but walked through life all on my own, I do not think I could help but feel sorry. I would regret that my choices did not leave room for a family.

I am not extraordinarily ambitious. When I imagine what the good life should look like for me a decade from now, I like to imagine having a new little family. I would like to live in a two-story house, be relatively financially stable, and work on writing a book. I would like a flexible job so I can spend extra time with my kids, but I would also like that job to pay relatively well. I would like half of the walls in my house to be covered with bookshelves (to hold my family’s impressively massive collection of books) and the other half to be covered with windows.

If I am extra lucky, (and this is not a necessary part of the good life, just an extremely desirable one) I would like to be able to afford at least two skeins of alpaca yarn per year. And most notably, I would like to carry an improved attitude in all situations, regardless of my other circumstances. I would like to live by continually rejoicing in the blessings that I have. The good life, to me, means constantly growing in maturity.

I like to think, however, that I am already living the good life. I do not want to be married right now, or to have a house and children. Now, I am at college. I have a fantastic education opportunity, and the expenses have been provided for me. I get to see my family regularly, and I am making many friends while at college. I am glad to be where I am, and will look for the opportunities God has given me to glorify Him by placing me here.

The goals that I shall form, spur-of-the-moment, to connect what I am doing now with where I where I want to go are as follows:

First: decide what career to pursue

Second: graduate college with a degree that will enable a pursuit of that career

And third, which is my short-term goal: improve my writing skills by writing at least three times a week, and begin regularly tracking my writing progress.