Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6, NIV
What will your life look like in ten years?
It’s hard to imagine 10 days from now, let alone 10 years. However, I was recently listening to a speaker that invited guests to consider the “ten years from now” notion. She asked the audience if they would be happy if their life were to remain exactly the same, ten years from now.
When put in those terms, it inspired me to get serious about changing things. For me, it’s not that I wasn’t happy with my life. I genuinely liked what I was doing. But if I were thinking of my future life design, I knew there were some longings in my heart to consider. I decided it was time to get after some of the hopes and dreams still in my heart.
Homeschooling is a commitment. I definitely sidelined some ambitions and projects until I felt I had more mental bandwidth. Yet I could appreciate things were progressing in our homeschool life to reveal my child needed me a little bit less each year. Hopefully, this same experience will be true for you in your homeschool environment.
With fresh inspiration, I began to consider some ideas for life after homeschool. Would I return to the workforce? Start a business? Get more involved with church, service, hobbies, or passions? Where would I like to see myself after your homeschooling journey is over? I began to consider what small steps I could begin to “try on” the next season ahead.
Just as I did when I was designing our homeschool year, I started with passions. This time I was looking at my own passions to see where I wanted to focus my energies. I knew I wanted to get back into writing and I treasured pouring into students. With that in mind, I looked for small ways to begin to do more writing. Sometimes this meant getting up earlier or squeezing fifteen minutes of writing into my lunch breaks. I also started paying more attention to service opportunities with tutoring and mentoring outside of my homeschooling communities to broaden my environment.
One of the things that I missed most during our homeschool years was being able to have lunch with friends. For me, I found it disruptive and counterproductive if I left the house in the middle of the homeschool day. In the next season, I wanted to be intentional about making more time for friends and loved ones. This meant I needed to be intentional about spending time with loved ones where I could now. Previously, I felt I didn’t have time to join any additional activities but now had more time for women’s ministry events, books clubs, and other engaging ways to connect with friends.
In truth, it’s hard to know what my life would be like ten years from now. I know I have missed my friends and some of my passions minimized in the homeschooling season. As I was considering the homestretch, I wanted to model for my son a parent who also pursued their own hopes and dreams. While my student was preparing for life beyond homeschooling, I needed to be as intentional about preparing for my life beyond homeschooling, too.
Think
What will life look like for you after homeschooling?
What are small ways you can begin to try those ideas on now?
You continue to inspire me.