You are writing the story of your life. You are the author and protagonist. You’re the one making the decisions; you decide where the story goes next.
As you write your story, you encounter outside forces, but those forces aren’t writing your story. Unless you allow them to.
Imagine that, instead of you writing your story, you slide your laptop across the table and let someone else decide which way the story goes. Instead if you making the decision as to what’s next, some other writer gets to decide for you.
What does the story look like if you let your employer write it? Would they write the story that you would write for yourself? Your employer probably doesn’t want to write your story for you, but they will write the story if you don’t.
What if you let your government write your story for you? If you decide not to write your own story, your government will do its very best to write your story, but that story will be one where you have the barest minimum of what you need to survive.
Your parents love you, and they want you to be safe and happy. They cringe at the idea that would take risks; they’d write a very safe story, wouldn’t they?
There are a lot of people who will write your story for you if you don’t write it yourself. Your story is yours to write. It’s the greatest gift you will ever receive. You write every word on every page. Your always in the middle chapters, and there is always time for you to set the protagonist a new course, to choose a new adventure, or find a new dragon to slay.