What's your One Direction? (ahaha this has nothing to do with a band)

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

-Oh, the Places You'll Go, Dr. Seuss 

 Doesn't it seem like at times people expect you to know where your life is going? Some of us have known since we were kids. Some of us keep changing our minds. Some of us have a pretty good idea. Some of us just don't know.

It's kind of a laugh that people say you get to make your own decisions once you're an adult. Well, to some extent that's true, but if you want to do art for a living those same people are quick to jump in and tell you that's completely ridiculous; go get a real job.

What if you've got a calling and it doesn't conform to "how life is supposed to work?"
I was wondering the other day about John the Baptist. He was dedicated from birth to be set apart in his lifestyle for God. His mother was told while still pregnant with him that he was supposed to abstain from alcohol. This wasn't TOO uncommon, but it was the least of his abnormalities.
The fact that he was named "John" probably made some people wonder. That was the name God gave his parents, but tradition was to name a son after his father.
What was really weird was how he went off and lived in the desert and ate bugs and wild honey. He didn't wear "normal" clothes. His occupation was preaching to people--he didn't have a "trade." I'm sure plenty of his neighbors asked him what the heck he thought he was doing with his life.

Hey, if God is calling you to do something, that's awesome, and usually (in my experience) other believers will support you in that if they're pretty sure it's genuine.
But I also wondered... what if John the Baptist just wanted to be a blacksmith when he was 12?
What if what God has for you is something you don't want to do at all?!
Now, I'm not sure if such a clash of personality and calling would even happen completely. Your interests might seem very extraneous at times, but who God created you to be will surely line up somehow with what He made you to do. I don't think God would create someone with a sciencey smart personality, shape her life experiences to this, give her great scholarships and wonderful teachers, and then decide her calling is to... I dunno, write dramas for TV. I'm pretty sure that if God is leading you somewhere and you're in step with that, you'll be okay with it, and He'll prepare you for the parts you just aren't sure about.

I never had an answer to "what are you going to be when you grow up?" I liked drawing and writing but they were just hobbies. When i was young, my media was very closely monitored. When I started choosing for myself what I watched and read, I was appalled to find cursing and sexual stuff littering  cool stories with great characters. I would watch things like The Sound of Music and wonder why "clean" media is no longer made for everyone. One day I was praying and it just clicked. Since then I've been convinced that I'm supposed to be involved in making wholesome media that anyone can enjoy, whether they're grown up or still innocent.

There is possibly a second part to my direction in life that seemed way out of my league at first, but God is teaching me ways to fulfill it. However, I'm not ready to publicly share what that is yet.

Well, I'm not entirely sure where this is going. It was supposed to be based on my John the Baptist musings. But basically, here's some encouragement: Whether you think that you know where you're going or not, you can trust God to show you where you should be and to help you get there.