My parents died about five years ago. I did my best to grieve and move on with my life but now I am finding that I have trouble making decisions about what to do with my life. My mother always helped me with the hard questions and now that she is gone and feel stuck. My parents passing away at such a young age taught me that life is short, so I don't want to make the wrong choices. But it also made me afraid to make any decision about what to do with my life. In times like these going to college is so important to being able to support yourself but I don't want to shell out a bunch of money and choose the wrong career path. Without my parents to fall back on it makes the decision more stressful. How do I move on with my life and make a decisions for myself without being so afraid?

Let me first say I am sorry to hear you lost your parents. The lost of a friend or relative can be hard but both parents is such a blow. 5 years may seem like a long time but not with grief. I lost a daughter at the age of 15. Our whole family eventually decided to go for grief counseling at a pastoral counseling center. 6 months later we felt like we were getting along with life better. 2 years later I went back, I wasn't better. It takes time, sometimes a lot of time for grief to die down to where it doesn't control some of your decisions. You will get there, maybe, if you are open to it, some sort of grief counseling would help you, it did help me.

Life is all about taking chances and following you heart. Life is short so love strong and experience what you can with the time you are given. There is no wrong decision just learning experiences and how will you know what is right for you unless you know what you don't want. Believe in yourself as much as I believe in you. Ben

This thread is from 2008 - there are more recent threads on the same subject.

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