In Five Years

Where do you see yourself in five years? We’re often asked this question or something similar about where do we see ourselves in the future. What do we want to be when we grow up? Are you going to college?  We make the plans we often think we’re in control but then life throws us some surprises. That’s what happens in Rebecca Serle’s novel “In Five Years.” Dannie Kohan has her future all mapped out, Dannie’s best friend Bella is more of a spur of the moment type of girl. Dannie has her dream career as a lawyer and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal. The next morning Dannie wakes up in a different apartment, with a different ring on the finger and a very different man. Dannie spends one hour five years in the future before she wakes up back in the present. After I read and finished “One Italian Summer,” I knew I had to order Rebecca Serle’s previous novel “In Five Years”. It’s a book about love, friendship and the timeless lesson that not everything we have planned always works out and much of the time that is to our benefit.

Pros & Cons

I love that the setting is in various places in New York. There were certain things that were predictable like you knew who Dannie wasn’t going to get with, however there were also some twists too that I didn’t see coming as well. The ending wasn’t my favorite but it felt like it was realistic and leaves a little bit of an opening. The story does have a sensitive topic of Bella having ovarian cancer. Some of us have had cancer or we know someone who does have cancer. A close family member of mine went through a rough time battling blood cancer. She recently had her bone marrow removed and replaced and is slowly getting her strength back. The bone marrow replacement should kill the cancer forever. The main lesson of the story that while it’s good to have some plans for your future, we need to have spontaneity and that we have limited time on this earth and that we should make it a good life for ourselves and the people we are around. We also should be open to new things and make sure what we’ve got planned is what we want. Five years ago I didn’t even think that such a thing as blogging existed. I didn’t even know what a blog was. I looked back and realized I only went to college because it was expected of me to go.  I figured I would major in English be a writer, eventually meet someone and marry and be a mother before or by the time I was 30. I did have a boyfriend but it didn’t work out. We both wanted different things. In 2019 I felt God was calling me to blog when I watched a free online course about it and for those who follow my blogs social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook you know the rest is history. For the authors who give me content to put in my newsletters and Q&A’s I’m very grateful to you all. I still get star struck when you all give me content for the blog and when you follow me back on instagram or except a friend request on Facebook and heck even like my comments and reply back.  For my family and friends who encourage me to follow the American dream, I also thank you too. For God calling me to blog and helping it succeed I thank you most of all.

Overall

There’s not much to say here except “In Five Years,” is another perfect timeless lesson about if something we planned doesn’t happen, it’s not always a bad thing and we need some spontaneity in our lives. We also need to use the limited time on this earth to make our lives and the lives of others good. Be open to new things.