As I prepare myself for graduation, I can’t help but get nervous. I keep looking at my friends’ LinkedIn pages and status updates. One person is preparing for law school. Another one is going to be working at a major entertainment company. Someone else is ready for grad school.

Now please don’t take this the wrong way. I absolutely LOVE watching my friends succeed. If there is anything I can do to help my friends out, I will do it. However, when you finally reach that point in your life where you just don’t know what the next step holds, you become increasingly frustrated and often times discouraged.

I think my discouragement stems from always knowing what I want and suddenly not knowing where I will end up. I always seemed to have a plan in place. I knew what I was going to go to school for. I was lucky enough to not have to question my educational choices. However, I have finally reached that point in my life where I just don’t know, and that truly scares me.

Now that I am unsure of my future, I constantly find myself comparing my plans with my friends’ plans, which is one of the worst things we as humans can do. In a recent conversation with a friend of mine, she reminded me of Theodore Roosevelt’s famous words, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

I truly believe that this is an essential lesson for everyone to learn, especially soon-to-be graduates like myself. Instead of focusing on what others around us are doing, it is time to create our own future. When we get caught up in where our friends are applying for jobs or schools, we often forget to focus on what we want. It is so important to support the ones we love, but we must also remember that each of us was designed and destined for something great.

One thing that was instilled in me growing up was the importance of doing your best because when it comes to a job, you are replaceable. As much as I agree with this statement and as important as it is to remain humble and hardworking, we must remember that although someone can replace your job, no one can replace who you were meant to be and what you were meant to achieve.

To put it simply, stop comparing yourself to your friends and start focusing on yourself. Once you concentrate on yourself, you will learn what you were designed to do. After you figure out your calling, you can create your future.