The "Right Way" to Live?

I think in today’s society people have this concept that there is one “right way” to live. For each age there are the appropriate and expected behaviors. In your college years you are expected to party all of the time and pull all-nighters, after graduation the next logical step is to get a job, eventually settle down, have a career, start a family etc., etc.  I don’t know if other people feel this way, but at least these are the general stereotypes and sequence of events that I feel like society has laid out for us. But how boring and monotonous would life be if some people didn’t have the courage to break the norm?

Throughout my semester in Ecuador I have done a lot of thinking about what I will be doing a short year from now after graduation. Through my travels and hostel hopping from one town to the next I have met travelers, young and old, backpacking across countries for months at a time. I have met missionaries who decided to take a leap of faith and move to Ecuador to help those less fortunate. And I have had the opportunity to make friends with people who all have very different goals, hopes, and dreams. All of the people that I have met over the past several months have taught me that there is so much life out there, and so many different ways to live. What is right for one person, may not be right for the next and that is okay!

We should never feel we have to sell ourselves short and follow the crowd. So many adventures and discoveries would be missed if we all followed the traditional path. And no I am no closer to knowing what I want to do after graduation but I think that after my semester here I am at least more aware that life is not meant to always be planned out and be a logical sequence of events. Why follow the straight and narrow when the curved path has surprises and adventures at every corner? There is NOT one “right way” to live. The diversity of culture, thoughts, and ideas that have surrounded me for the past 4 months has taught me otherwise.