This is part six of an eight-part series. Read the other parts here…

While my goals, such as they are, are clear in at least a fairly big picture way, I don’t know the details in how I’ll achieve them, and right now I just have to work with what I’ve got. Which means that I’ll probably be getting a part-time job this fall. Working in the kitchens at a restaurant, perhaps. Something temporary and not very well-paying, but something I hopefully won’t hate too much. I know that I’m privileged in that my family is middle class: lower middle class, yes, but still with the financial ability to support their daughter past what’s usually considered high school age. But with insurance for me running out at my next birthday, and with my wanting to continue visiting friends who live far away, travel to new places, and do other interesting things, money is a must. And I really feel like I need to be the one supplying my own money in large part at this point.

When you’re taking a well established route—college, followed by university, followed by a good career, etc.—the way may not be easy, but at least it’s clear. When your goals, the way you plan to live, are so very different from those accepted paths, you’re bushwhacking. There is no trail to follow, so like it or not, you’re making your own!

While there may have been too few people who’ve come before to leave an actual trail behind, just knowing they exist, and hearing their stories, does give me hope and confidence that what I want for my own life is attainable.

Because the tough bit lies in that: attaining it. How do you live by your ideals in a culture that’s not just indifferent, but in many cases built in direct opposition to the ways in which you want to be living? How do you turn dreams and vague plans into reality?

I’m still busy figuring that out, as are many of my friends in their 20’s. I’m just grateful that I know people who are sharing in a similar dilemma, so that we can cheer each other on, share our triumphs and setbacks, and work together to build the lives we really want to be living.

This is part six of our eight-part series, Week of the Idzie. Read the full series here.

This essay originally was part of a keynote speech Idzie gave at the 2011 Toronto Unschooling Conference.