On a recent episode of NPR’s radio program This American Life an informal survey of 100 people was done. They were asked who considered themselves to be on Plan A for their lives, and one woman raised her hand. She was 20.

It got me thinking about my own situation – the visions I’ve had for how life would turn out so far and how that differs from what’s actually happened.

Without going too far back, I’ll just say that I distinctly remember a conversation when I was 15 taking place between my best friend Katie and myself. I generally have a terrible memory, but we re-hashed this topic over & over that year: what would we be doing in 10 years? Well, it just so happens that it’s 10 years later so I can’t help but think back at my 15 year-old self and wonder how she’d feel about me today.

I told Katie at 25 I hoped I’d be getting married… maybe even having a baby… have bought a house… and would be settled into a career path. About halfway through at age 20 I revised the timeline and thought hitting those milestones by 30 was actually more realistic, which I think is true for most people. But then, Nick happened. And we’ve been plowing through that list on overdrive – buying a house and getting pregnant faster than we’d planned.

Only four years ago I had decided I’d spend most of my life living abroad – probably somewhere in the Arab world, which is why I put so much energy into learning Arabic. After Nick & I started dating it took probably 2 years for the realization to sink in that being with him meant that instead of the Middle East, I’d probably wind up in the Midwest. Rather than giving up my dream entirely, I set off for England where I got my Master’s degree in International Relations & Middle Eastern studies … but as the program wound to a close I knew I had a huge decision to make – stay with Plan A and pursue the career I’d imagined, or come up with a Plan B that involved heading out to Wisconsin indefinitely.

Plan B it was.

The truth is I’m past Plan B – it’s more like Plan X, Y or Z. I’ve always been a free spirit and believe in walking through doors as they open, but for the past few years I haven’t been able to predict which doors those would be. Even now I’m not entirely sure what career path I’m on – it’s not like I planned to work in social media, I’m just nerdy enough that the opportunities came to me.

Sometimes the things that impact us the most are the variables we hadn’t calculated for at all. I know there were several life-changing decisions that came about in the aftermath of my Dad’s death. It was his passing that really mended my heart to Nick’s – his love was a major source of comfort, and it’s what led me to take the leap of graduating a semester early to head out to Wisconsin for 6 months before grad school started. I just had to know if the chemistry we had online and over the phone could be translated into an in-person relationship.

Some of the last words my Dad spoke to me were about living life to the fullest, which helped push me over the edge towards getting healthy and finally losing the extra weight. And in turn, I ended up connecting with and inspiring thousands of people through my weight loss video blogs. Definitely not something I had planned.

There are too many unknown variables to make a wager on a person’s future. Sure, I could make an educated guess what I’ll be doing in 10 years, but it’s likely to be wrong … perhaps the field I’ll be working in doesn’t even exist yet, or a side project* will suddenly alter the path I’m currently on.

Life is full of surprises.

* This video is Evan Williams (founder of Twitter) talking at TED ’09 about how his side projects have consistently turned out to be more valuable than his ‘real’ work.