A personal essay exploring how life's unexpected turns don't define your destiny. Discover how redefining goals, finding alternative paths, and transforming pain into purpose can lead to meaningful progress and lasting fulfillment.
“
Health challenges reshaped my path, but not my purpose. I returned to school, became an author, and now dream of building a nonprofit to support others. My route changed. My calling didn't.
Jessica J. Taylor · In Her Own Words
Her Story
About Jessica
Jessica Taylor is an independent author, college student, and advocate who believes deeply that your current situation is not your final destination. That belief has become more than a quote to her—it is a principle she chooses to live by.
Jessica is currently completing her business administration degree with an AI concentration at Campus EDU and plans to continue her education at Loyola University, ultimately working toward the study of psychology. Her long-term goal is to use both her education and lived experiences to help people facing trauma, adversity, and circumstances that can leave them feeling unheard or alone.
As an independent author, Jessica has published 13 books through Amazon KDP, using writing as a way to encourage, motivate, and remind others that difficult chapters do not have to become the ending of their story. Rather than allowing the hardships of her past to determine how she treats the world, she has chosen to turn those experiences into compassion and a desire to become for someone else the kind of person she once needed herself.
Jessica also hopes to establish a nonprofit organization that provides people in her community with access to essential resources and support without cost becoming the barrier that prevents someone from receiving help.
Two words have carried Jessica through many moments when circumstances told her something could not be done: “I refuse.” She refuses to allow adversity to determine the limits of her future, and she hopes her journey encourages others to keep moving toward theirs.
Her message is simple: Your past may be part of your story, but it does not have to define your future. Your current situation is not your final destination.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to perseverance, purpose, and refusing to let my circumstances decide who I become. My past experiences and the hardships I have faced have given me a strong desire to break generational cycles and be the change I once needed in my own life.
Two beliefs guide me every day: “Your current situation is not your final destination” and “I refuse.” I refuse to allow adversity, fear, or the expectations others place on me to determine how far I can go. I believe it is okay to become overwhelmed, to rest, and to regroup, but giving up on yourself is not the answer.
My children are also a major part of my motivation. I want to lead by example and show them that our past and our struggles do not have to define our future. I cannot change everything or everyone, but I can choose to break the chain, lead with compassion, and hopefully become the change that inspires someone else to believe in themselves too.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Some of the best advice I have learned is not to let someone else's “you can't” become my answer. There is still “can” inside “can't,” and I have learned that when one path becomes impossible, that does not mean the destination has to disappear—it may simply mean finding another way to reach it.
My original dreams have had to change because of circumstances outside of my control, but my purpose has not. I have always wanted to help people, especially those facing trauma, hardship, or moments when they feel alone. If I cannot fulfill that purpose in the exact way I once imagined, I can continue my education, write, advocate, and find another path that allows me to make a difference.
The advice I carry forward is simple: listen when circumstances require you to adapt, but do not confuse adapting with giving up. If there is a will, keep looking for the way.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Believe in yourself before you expect anyone else to believe in you. You are capable of more than your circumstances, your past, or someone else's expectations may lead you to believe.
Do not be afraid to start small, change direction, ask questions, or take a different path than the one you originally planned. Growth does not always happen in a straight line. There will be setbacks, but a setback does not have to become the end of your story.
I tell my children and others the same thing I remind myself: believe it to achieve it. Your current situation is not your final destination. Keep learning, keep creating, lead with compassion, and never allow someone else's definition of what is possible to become the limit you place on yourself.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in writing and independent publishing is being heard in a world where people are surrounded by an enormous amount of content every day. Publishing a book is only part of the journey; authors also have to find meaningful ways to reach the people who may genuinely benefit from what they have written.
At the same time, I believe technology and applied AI are creating important opportunities for independent writers, students, and creators. These tools can help people organize ideas, learn new skills, improve accessibility, and accomplish work that may once have required resources they did not have.
The opportunity, in my view, is learning how to use technology without losing the human story behind the work. AI can support the process, but compassion, lived experience, personal voice, and genuine human connection are what give that work meaning.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Compassion, integrity, perseverance, family, and service are the values that guide both my personal life and the work I hope to do.
Compassion is especially important to me because I know what it feels like to need someone to listen, understand, and simply be there. I never want another person to feel invisible or believe that their struggles make them less worthy of care, respect, or opportunity. I try to treat people with the kindness and understanding I would have wanted during some of the hardest moments of my own life.
Integrity means doing what is right even when nobody is watching. Perseverance means continuing forward when the path becomes difficult, while also understanding that resting and asking for help are not the same as giving up.
Family is also deeply important to me. I want my children to see through my actions that circumstances do not determine character, and that cycles can be broken by choosing differently and leading by example.
Above all, I value service. Whether through my writing, education, future work, or plans for a nonprofit, I want what I accomplish to mean more than personal success. If something I have learned, survived, created, or achieved can make another person feel less alone or help them move forward, then it has a greater purpose.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Jessica
Your Current Situation Is Not Your Final Destination
How Changing Paths Led Me to Discover My True Purpose
There have been many moments in my life when the future I imagined suddenly looked different from the future in front of me. Some circumstances were beyond my control. Some doors closed before I was ready to let them go. And more than once, I have had to reconsider not only how I would reach my goals but also what reaching them could look like.
Through those experiences, I have learned something that has become one of the principles I live by: your current situation is not your final destination.
When the Path Changes
Since I was young, I have felt called to help others. I once imagined fulfilling that purpose through a career such as nursing or psychology—being there for people during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
Life forced me to reconsider what some of those dreams might look like. For a while, it would have been easy to believe that if I could not follow the exact path I originally imagined, I had lost the destination, too.
But a changed path does not have to mean an abandoned purpose.
I began asking myself a different question. Instead of focusing only on what I could no longer do in the way I once imagined, I started asking, "What can I still do with what I have?"
That question changed a lot for me.
Finding Another Way Forward
Education became one of those ways forward.
I returned to college and am currently completing my business administration studies with a concentration in AI at Campus EDU. I plan to continue my education at the bachelor's level and ultimately pursue my interest in psychology.
My education has become about much more than earning a degree. Every assignment completed, every quarter finished, and every academic milestone reached reminds me that progress does not have to look conventional to be meaningful.
Writing became another path.
In a relatively short period of time, I have published multiple books through Amazon KDP. My books often come from experiences, emotions, lessons, relationships, and struggles that have shaped my life.
Writing gives me a way to take something difficult and turn it into something another person might need.
If one person opens something I have written during a moment when they feel alone and finds a reason to keep going, then that experience has gained another purpose.
Resting Is Not Quitting
I believe we sometimes misunderstand perseverance.
Perseverance does not mean pretending everything is easy. It does not mean never becoming overwhelmed. It does not mean refusing help or forcing yourself to keep moving at the same speed every day.
Sometimes perseverance means stopping long enough to recover.
Sometimes it means asking for help.
Sometimes it means walking instead of running.
And sometimes it means crawling toward a goal because crawling is all you have available that day.
Progress is still progress.
I often remind myself of two simple words: "I refuse."
I refuse to allow a difficult chapter to write the ending of my story. I refuse to believe that changing direction means I have failed. I refuse to let someone else's idea of what I can or cannot accomplish become the limit I place on myself.
Turning Pain Into Purpose
One of the most important choices I have made is deciding what I want to do with the difficult parts of my story.
I cannot rewrite the past. I cannot control every circumstance that comes next. But I can decide what I carry forward from those experiences.
I can choose compassion.
I can choose to break harmful cycles instead of repeating them.
I can choose to become for someone else the kind of person I once needed.
That belief is also behind my hope of eventually creating a nonprofit organization that connects people in my community with essential resources and support without finances becoming the reason someone goes without help.
I know what it means to wish circumstances were different. That is precisely why I want whatever I accomplish to reach beyond me.
Success, to me, is not simply collecting achievements. It is being able to take something I have learned, survived, created, or accomplished and use it to make another person's road a little less lonely.
The Destination Can Still Be Yours
Life may change your timeline.
It may change your route.
It may even require you to redefine what the destination looks like.
But none of those things automatically mean your story is over.
Maybe you cannot run toward your goal today. Walk.
Maybe you cannot walk. Crawl.
Maybe today you need to rest. Rest.
Then, when you are able, begin again.
You are allowed to change direction. You are allowed to rewrite the plan. You are allowed to become someone different from the person you once imagined you would be.
Just do not mistake where you are standing today for where you are capable of going tomorrow.
Turn pain into power and purpose. Believe that another chapter can still be written.
And remember:
Your current situation is not your final destination.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.