This is a question I have been asked many times in the last few months. I went to (::counts on fingers::) several interviews in my quest for a new job. I interviewed at: a daycare, UF's housing office, UF's Admissions office, a dermatology office, UF's College of business, a museum (for a volunteer position, and finally the dept. I will be working for starting Feb. 12. There may have been at least one other interview that I can't recall at the moment, but definitely every interview that I listed, the Interviewer asked me where I see myself in 3-5 years. Mostly, he or she just wanted to know if I was going to be in town long enough for them to be interested in hiring me.Usually, my answer was half-catered to my actual feelings toward life in the future and half catered to the type of job I was applying for. Sometimes I wanted to be a teacher at an elementary school or other times in some sort of healthcare administration position.
The truth is, I only have a vague idea of what I would like my future to hold. If I look back to where I was 5 years in the past, I remember being elbow-deep in my senior year, trying to arrange projects for National Honor Society, wondering whether my relationship with J.B. was going to work out, fighting w/my parents over why I didn't want to live at home for college, and loving life as Senior, dying to be a Freshman in college. I had no inkling of an idea of the lovely life I would lead at UF.
For example, I didn't know I would hold true to my feelings against being memory-erasing drunk and partying all the time. I enjoy a glass of wine a couple times a week, but am very rarely drunk. I didn't know I would find a church that I felt accepted me, but then 1.5 years later want absolutely nothing to do with said church. and I certainly would not have said that I saw myself staying in college town for any amount of time after graduating, much less planning on being here for probably another year or so.
But that still doesn't answer the question of my life in 5 years. My dream to be married, own a home (condo or house, I'll take either one really), maybe be a mother, have a good steady job which I enjoy and happy. I would like to live in Colorado at some point in my life. I want to travel in Europe.
I have some short term goals, some long term goals and some eventual goals in mind. The project I'm really turning over in my thoughts lately is flipping houses. For my first attempt, I would like to purchase a home here, live in it for about a year and work on the house's value, then sell it for a profit. The goal is to save about $10,000 for a down payment and still have a bit of emergency cash. I don't know very much about buying houses or flipping them for that matter, but it feels like a good project. Besides that, it would feel nice to actually own something like my very own home.
The kink in the plan has to do with my feelings toward actually owning my very own home. I have always felt that I didn't want to own a house or any property before I was married. I just thought that buying a home was something you did with your husband, not your very serious boyfriend whom you live with. My goal clashes with my dream. I'm not quite ready to wear a ring on a choice finger on a choice hand, but I feel like I am ready to buy, improve and sell (mentally, not so much financially).
So where do I see myself in the next 5 years? The answer is: I don't know.
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