Like nearly every high school student, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time daydreaming about my future and thinking about the life I want to have. I have imagined myself as Kat Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You or Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. As a lover of romantic comedies, I always assumed my life would follow the classic story arc – girl goes to college and starts her career, she meets the guy, life throws a few curve balls along the way, and then ultimately the girl lives happily ever after. This was the life and the storyline I was hoping for. What I wasn’t expecting was for life’s first curve ball to be a cancer diagnosis at age 16; and what I really wasn’t anticipating is for that diagnosis to change my perspective on the life I want to lead. The diagnosis helped me to understand that my future isn’t set in stone. What I’ve come to realize is that the romantic comedy storyline is too small, too simple, and far too limiting.

Plenty of people will argue that the meaning of life is to find love. I sincerely hope that I do find love in the future, especially since I believe it’s one of life’s great privileges. But I also know that I won’t be incomplete without romantic love. The world is too big and the possibilities too vast for my happiness to hinge upon my connection to one other person. What if my script is different? What if my storyline doesn’t involve the love of a single soul mate, but rather a deep and passionate love of my life’s work. I want to be a NICU nurse. I want to provide medical care for infants in their most vulnerable state, and I want to do that work with love. I want to be the person who provides that comfort and care to babies and their families. I want to put that love out into the world with the confidence that in one way or another, that love will come back to me.

Beyond finding my version of love, the life I want to lead involves adventure and exploration. The “happily ever after” I once wanted now sounds stagnant and unimaginative. I want to know what it feels like to have the anonymity of living in a major city or to lose myself in the quiet and solitude of a national park. I dream of swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, seeing the Northern Lights, and experiencing the food, culture, and history of Italy.

So maybe my life won’t follow the traditional romantic comedy trope after all. Honestly, I’m okay with that. In fact, I’m excited by the idea of writing a new kind of story. Cancer may have disrupted the plot I once imagined, but it also gave me the clarity to create something richer and more meaningful. My story might not end with “happily ever after,” but if I can live a life I love, then I’ll consider it a story worth telling.