Sometimes, I find myself having these strange domestic thoughts about what I want to have in a couple of years.

A house that I (along with my significant other) can fix up together. One that's big and old and probably hasn't seen a fresh coat of paint in years and years. I can see him with power tools and wood, and I see me with a paint brush and always lending him a hand. It'll be a house by some water. It will have a large front and back yard, but most of our property will be forest.

We will have a canoe. And a truck. And soon, we'll get pregnant, and I'll wear tight shirts to show off my belly. I will be a beautiful pregnant woman just like my mom. I will have a baby girl, and her name will be Abby Faye. A couple years later, we'll have a little boy.

I will make strawberry jam and brown bread just like my mom did. And I will be a great mother. I might even home school. My husband and I will be happy because we will know the value of time together and time apart. We will hike in the forests of Nova Scotia, and we will swim and body board and snorkel in the oceans. We will travel. We will kiss and make up. And I will live happily ever after.

And then... I realize that I'm 22, and I should be enjoying my life while I can. I don't want to be 40 and look back at my teenage kids and make myself angry for not taking my younger years and living for ME, and not for a family. And I'm well aware that that's how I'd feel.

And so, before I have a wonderful life with a husband, house, and kids, I want to:

Move to Ottawa or the US to work. I want to go to the Rockie Mountains. I want to buy a motorcycle and travel across Canada and the USA. I want to be an aupair. I want to design for a living, because it's truly what I love to do. I want to share laughs with friends, and talk about guys and how cute they are, before I'm too old and end up thinking about how much money they make and what kind of a car they drive.

I want to live the solo life until I know for sure that it's time to settle down. But hot diggity, these domesticated thoughts do scare me.