Five years

Photo credit: Meiying Ng on Unsplash

Before I jump straight into this, I want to make one thing clear: this is not where I will be. This is only where I hope, wish and think I will be according to my current situation and goals. The purpose of this post is to come back in 5 years and read over it and see how many things have come true. Things might not work out, things might work out, or things might work out differently than I (thought) have written here. 

In this last post for 2018, I will cover 5 different aspects of my life, starting off with:

1. Chosen Blog

Most of you know how passionate I am about this blog. To me it’s more than words written and published. It’s more than the numbers of people that visit my website. It’s more than how many followers I have on social media. Its purpose is far more precious than numbers – it’s about you. It’s about encouraging you, motivating you and inspiring you.

Within 5 years, I hope Chosen will have reached and blessed more people. My vision is far greater than keeping it just as “personal blog”. And so, in five years I genuinely hope and pray that my friends and I will have at least put our foot in the door for the vision behind Chosen. I hope we will have started what we have always dreamed of. I will not go into details now . . . but it’s worth mentioning there is a reason and a purpose behind it all. To give you a hint, let’s hope within 5 years it will go from chosen.blog to chosen.org. (Yes chosen.blog will remain).

My goal for this blog is to continue thriving and impacting my readers.  It is also one of my dreams to collaborate with other bloggers/influencers, interview a different demographic of people, share powerful stories, and keep it influential. 

2. University

For the next three years of my life, I’ll be studying Bachelor of Journalism. I am excited for this new phase of my life.  It has always been a dream and I feel blessed that I got the amazing opportunity to fulfil this dream.

Since my degree is three years full-time, I assume I’ll be graduated in 5 years. However, I have a desire to learn and gain more knowledge in different fields. The other fields I am interested in are psychology, business and leadership, human rights, and bible college. 

I am not sure in what degree level I'd like to undertake these subjects but I know if I were to study further, it'd be one (or more) of those listed. 

When I was 15,  it was one of my dreams (and still is today)  to study at Hillsong International Leadership College. My plan is to do it after my bachelor degree. But the 'when' is still unknown. If things do work out for me and I am able to study there, I'll either do Worship & Music (Songwriting) or Pastoral Leadership. This means I'll have to move to Sydney though! But I don't mind moving there and I believe it would be one of those life-changing experiences for me. 

3. Career Life

With the assumptions that I’ll graduate within the next five years, I hope I’ll find a job in Journalism. My dream jobs is to work as a creative writer and content creator at a magazine company. I would love to work with a company that has a vision and is on a mission. 

I also enjoy interviewing people. One of my dreams is to travel around the world, visit countries that people rarely visit. I want to hear the stories of the unheard and share them with the world. 

I would also be down to work as a radio hostess and TV presenter. I mean how cool would it be to have celebrities/famous people featured in a radio session or be guests on my show. 

4. Goals 

I have many goals. I have major and minor ones. I have long-term and short-term goals. I have any kind of goals you could think of. For real. I’ll list three goals I hope I’ll achieve within the next five years of my existence.

- Write a book

I want to write a book about my journey from Iraq, to Jordan to Australia. I will write it with a raw heart, honest thoughts and explicit feelings. I’ll share about my experiences both the good and bad. Its purpose will be to give hope and something people can relate to.  

- Go on a mission trip to Kenya

Since I was 12-13 years old, I’ve had this passion and desire to go on a mission trip to Kenya and serve the young girls there. This passion continues to burn in my heart today. And I look forward to the day I'll be there fulfilling the purpose. 

- Reunite with my two best friends again.

It saddens me to write this as one of my “goals” in life. It’s been 4 years since I have seen my two best friends and I miss them every day. I don’t think any of us would have imagined that we’d end up living in three different continents. We live far away from each other and it’s not easy to just casually meet up. But I genuinely hope that I’ll be able to reunite with them sometime soon.

5. Relationship Status 

Why do I feel like this will be most people’s favourite bit to read. First things first, let me start by expressing how awkward it is for me to write this.

In five years I will be 24 years old. I honestly don’t know what to write in here because I don’t have a clue of what the future holds. To narrow it down, I will definitely not be married by 24, so let’s tick that one off. Now there is a chance that I might be in a relationship or engaged to someone, or still single.

Regardless of what my Relationship Status will be within five years, the following are my reactions:

- Lydia Manshi single – you do you girl

- Lydia Manshi in a relationship – you still have time to reconsider your decision.

- Lydia Manshi engaged – have you reconsidered your decision?

- Lydia Manshi (or whatever my last name will be) married – it’s too late to reconsider your decision now. If he’s got blue eyes though – we’re good.

- Please don’t tell me you have kids already. 

To wrap it up, 5 years ago I did not imagine my life would be the way it is now. I had drawn out a completely different map for myself. I have briefly talked about this in my other blog post “Victim or Victorious”.

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend and he said something that stood out for me, “Structure doesn’t mean happiness”.

In every stage of our life we think to ourselves, "when I am X years old, I will have my life together". Truth is, you never "have your life together". Life is a journey (as cliché as this sounds), do we live in consonance with that definition?

We’re constantly putting effort to “structure” our lives because we think then we will find happiness, then we will be content, then our puzzle will be complete.

Five years ago, I thought I’d have my life together and settled down. But here I am still trying to figure things out. I’m still learning how certain things work, how to make the right decisions, how to mend what is broken. And what’s been the most challenging thing for me is holding myself accountable for what I do and say.

To take it back to what my friend said, there is nothing wrong with structure. Structure is, required – I’d say, to make sense of your life. However, structure isn’t the source of happiness and contentment. Many people live a structured life yet are the unhappiest. 

The older I get the more I understand the importance of making the right decision. It's both crazy and scary to think what one small decision can lead you up to and the consequences you'll have to face later in life (or maybe for the rest of your life). 

Whatever you experienced in 2018, please don't let it hold you victim. Don't bury yourself while you're still alive. Take the pain and mould it into a new strength. 

I hope and pray 2019 will be your best year yet! Love you and thank you for being a great support the past few months!

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