Good luck to you Susan! I wish you all the happiness in the world.

I also know your parents probably love you very, very much.

Dear Susan,

As a parent of a 19 year old, I know exactly how your parents' feel. You have understood very well where they're coming from. As parents we want our children to have stable careers and thus this creates "stable futures." That is the farthest from the truth. In reality we are acting out of fear. Many parents when their children are born want to "produce" the perfect child. This reflects back to them as they were excellent parents and they want to show the world how "well" they raised their children. When you as a parent become aware of this, you realize that the steps you, yourself, made first as a teenager and later on as a young adult shaped who you are today. You cannot deny this to your child, just because of your own negative experiences. Children need to learn and travel their own path, even if it's not what we wanted for them. I have had difficulty in accepting this for my 19 year old son. I realized during his senior year that he had to learn consequences to his actions and had to face up to whatever decisions he had made. We want to protect them, but cannot hold them back, by not letting them make mistakes. This is what life experience is, learning from our past decisions, or sometimes not learning from them and repeating the same mistake again, unitl we learn from it. Just as when our children were small, we as parents, did not want to see our child skin his/her knee, now as they're grown up, we don't want to see them hurting because of the decisions they've made. We must realize that even though it pains us, we must let them live and live in their own terms. Eventually they will find a balance in their lives. Susan, keep doing what you're doing, eventually they will come around. Always remember they love you very, very much and even if they do not come around, you are viewing it in a positive, non-confronational way, this will only come back to you in the same way. Good luck and have fun along the way!

Susan85, I myself is a recent college graduate. I am 22 and after my graduate this past February I did not know what to do. I felt as if something was missing. Just like you I knew a 9-5 job wouldn't bring me the joy that I was searching for. I had many jobs interviews for positions such as salesman and a financial advisor. I felt that they where great jobs, but something inside of me is telling me no, that is not the job for me. In my current job, I am a supervisor, and I can no longer see myself advancing in that industry anymore, and it is not because the company not allowing me too, but because I feel that my passion for that industry is dying. So, I registered for graduate school. I was amaze that everything works out so effortlessly. When I told my parents, they wont too happy, because I knew that they expected me to move back home. Unlike you, I do not know what my passion is anymore, but just like you I am living in the now.

I wish you all the best Susan!

Ken

Your post nearly made me cry with how much wisdom and perspective it contained.

Thank you for all your posts. It's amazing to know that there is a closeness that is shared from this community. I realize that who I am NOT is the start of realizing who I am. As a result, the enthusiasm I have for Life is restored again by that awareness. It's as if I am rejuvenated to my child-self. The practice from Chapter 7 definitely helped me reach this state. I let go of everything that my thoughts consumed of and what is left is what Eckert Tolle describes as a space. I felt separation with my mind and soul. My mind expresses tension from the "what if this won't work" and "I can't believe you are doing this" and " What about everything you have ever worked for". At one point of the book, I was about to give up because I didn't know who I was any more. I was completely confused and ready to put the book down. Something inside of me urged me to continue reading. So I did, and the more I read, I am not the same person reading each sentence. I am no longer just reading, but correlating the book to my life and understanding it. This is where I guess, my AHA! moment is born. It worked. Eckhart- you are brilliant. Somehow the transformation is complete once you are aware of your inability to identify with who you thought you were. My resolution for this moment forward is to give myself, my true self, a big appreciative hug that I have been deserving all along. I bet we all need to silence our self destructive side (ego) and realize how we truly vulnerable we are to our egos and the self abuse we allowed it to cause. Again, thank you for the kind responses.

Susan, I just wanted to say, as the parent, that you are on your way to a wonderful life's journey. Keep listening to that intuition, for me that is Christ (God) speaking to me through this intuition. Peace

Dear Susan Many people will disagree with me , however when I went to college in the 70's most of us put our selves through college and were able to choose what we wanted. It is hard for me to understand why parents today feel obligated to put their children through college. Can someone please explain to me why children think their parents should put them through college ? Thank you ---Debbie