In Five Years — Where Will I Be? Who Will I Be With? What Will I Be Doing?
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle is about a lawyer Dannie Cohan who suddenly wakes up five years from the present to a completely new life — A new man, a new home, a new surrounding. It makes her question the seemingly perfect life she currently lives as she continues on in the present, navigating her life while harboring the secret of her future self.
As the story progressed, I admired the main character. I absolutely loved her boss attitude in life and her ambitious goals to move up in life as a lawyer and build a life she wanted in New York. I looked up to this fictional character, her drive, her vision, and her planned-out relationship with her fiance. When I first finished the novel, I felt this angry surge inside of me at the main character. I was heated that she left her partner who in all senses was perfect, he checked off the boxes in that he was kind, caring, financially stable, and considerate yet she left him and wasn’t satisfied. I think this was why it was upsetting to see her character flaws — to watch her essentially cheat on her fiance with a guy who was with her best friend in the whole wide world (talk about girl code amiright). I think all of this rubbed me in the wrong way as this image of this career-driven and inspirational woman kinda toppled for me as the story progressed. But alas, no human is perfect, and characters in fictional stories with real flaws are closer reflections of our true human selves in the real world.
And then as I ruminated about the book I just read I thought about Angelica in my favorite musical, Hamilton, belting the line “I’ll never be satisfied” and it just made me think about our constant pursuit of “better”. Was Dannie satisfied in her perfect relationship? No, there wasn’t an itch in it that was waiting to be scratched.
It also gave me time to think about how people’s definition of their “perfect” life differs. I resounded with Type-A personality Dannie and her planning of the life she wanted to live, it spoke to my soul, it made me motivated to continue the story and root for the happy union between her and her picture-perfect fiance and to climb the corporate lawyer ladder and to finally settle in suburban bliss with a family and a stable job a few years down the line. I guess this image is what I wanted in my life. But then it’s not what the person who is sitting next to me as I type this might want. Also with time and experiences, priorities in your life change but such is life. As I am embarking on my own journey and my own life experiences, I realize that we have control of our own happiness. Even when you think you’re stuck in the current life or situation you’re in, you really aren’t. Where there is a will, there is a way and for Dannie, she knew deep down in her soul that she yearned for something else different. She went for it and took a leap of faith, leaving behind a planned life that was weighing her down.
I guess my takeaway from this novel is that life may not go as planned and what you may force yourself to want might not equate to what your heart truly desires. Cheesy, I know but it’s true. In the long run, a little bit of soul searching and life detours and setbacks are a must to ensure a life that you create that you, and only you will enjoy. Now as I think into the future, myself in five years, where will I be? What will I be doing? Who will I be with? Most importantly — I hope I am content with where I am at.
