Thoughtful Thursday // How Has Life Turned Out Differently Than Expected?

I almost laughed out loud when I read this question! Just one? I have a laundry list! Okay, okay, I'll pick one, but I'm still kind of cheating because I can tie a few of them into one sentence. Let's just say that my life has turned out almost NOTHING like I expected or planned. Can anyone else relate?

"What is one way that your life has turned out differently than you expected?"

I'm living with my family on a farm in the second half of my twenties.

Let my start off by saying, I do not intend for this to be a downer of a post. I'm not saying that my life is bad. I'm incredibly grateful to my parents for their encouragement and support. Do I struggle with contentment sometimes? Yes. Do I have to grieve the lost dreams? Absolutely. But that does not mean that I'm complaining and I hope it does not come across that way.

When my parents bought the property that has become our little farm back in 2014, I assumed I would never live here. The three generations of women before got married very young. I assumed that, by the second half of my twenties, I'd be married with kids. I was happy in the suburbs and I just wanted to be a stay at home, homeschool mom with a photography business. Even that business had turned out quite differently than expected or hoped, but that is a second things and I'm trying to stick to one.

I think all of us create stories for our lives of how we hope things will go. What we want to do, when we want to do it by, and what a "good" life will look like. I see a lot of people who are living the life I wanted for myself and I can get envious, but then I think, what did they expect? Is their life really what they had planned? I wonder this because I know I am living a life that a lot of other people want and admire. It almost amuses me how people seem to live out other people's dreams. I wonder why that is?

What in your life hasn't gone as you expected? Have you seen blessings come out of that?