Plan B.

(Warning: This post has very little to do with birth control.)

Last night I was listening to an old podcast of “This American Life” and it gave me a lot to think about.

The episode has the same name as the title of this blog post: Plan B. It starts off with Ira Glass stating that during a talk he was giving, he polled the audience to see how many of them feel like they are still living their Plan A. He says, out of 100 people, only one person (who happened to be the youngest person in the room) was living their Plan A.

Before I ramble on, I want to ask you the same question: Do you feel as if you are living your ideal life/Plan A? Or are you living your backup plan/Plan B?

In truth, it took me a while to realize that my life has Plan Bs in it. When I first started listening to the podcast, I could not think of any backup plans I’ve made. I thought, if only I had been in that audience with Ira Glass, there would have been two people who are living their Plan A. In truth, many of the “big changes” in my life, have been my Plan A. I attended my Plan A university, started my first nursing job at my ideal hospital, and was fortunate to live in two of my favorite cities.

After much thought though, the Plan Bs of my life became more apparent. When I started college, my initial plan was to become an architect and design intricate structures. But, I soon realized Plan A was not going to work because 1) I was not passionate about architecture and 2) I wasn’t good at it. So, I changed my major and went with my next plan. After college, I couldn’t find a good enough job in the city where I wanted to live, so I made the decision to move back home. And while it only lasted for eight months, it definitely was not my Plan A. And my Plan A nursing job? I waited months for it. Months without a significant paycheck coming my way. (Read: I was broke.) As an emergency department nurse, I am confronted by Plan B everyday; I doubt most people who come into the emergency department were planning to spend their day there. So, when I think about it, there are more Plan Bs in my day-to-day life than I was initially willing to admit.

I’m not sure if I’ve stressed this enough in this blog, but I have amazing friends. Friends who share their lives with me. In talking to a couple of my long distance friends recently, I know some of them are not living their Plan A lives at this very moment. For one friend, Plan A and Plan B both had benefits and so she decided which was better for her. And, there are times when she looks back and wonders what life would be like if she had decided differently. Another friend was handed some major life lemons recently. And while Plan A is out of the picture for now, it’s too soon to begin thinking about Plan B (and too soon to start making lemonade out of those lemons).

Truthfully though, instead of dwelling on the less than ideal aspects of life, my friends and I look at the grand aspects of life. It’s not an easy practice. But once you have come to terms with the fact that Plan A just isn’t going to work out, it’s time to look forward to the next plan. Even if we have to call it Plan B. Perhaps the most important realization is that it’s less important to focus on the backup plans you’ve had to make in your life, and start focusing on the things that are going the Plan A way.

I’ll leave you with this quote that I heard for the first time in college and I think it applies to this particular post.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”