Exhibit A, 3.22 “The Departed”
Matt makes plans about his and Elena’s future together.
Elena: I got into a fight with my boyfriend… Life, future. He’s got it all mapped out. [Damon: And you don’t want it?] I don’t know what I want.
Exhibit B, 2.14 “Crying Wolf” + 2.20 “The Last Day”
Stefan starts talking about his and Elena’s future and Elena prefers to stay in “right now”. Later on, Stefan finds out Elena wants to sacrifice herself, so there wasn’t even a future for them in her mind.
Elena tells Stefan about how much she doesn’t want to be a vampire and wants to have a human life and have a family and kids which equals to her not having a future with Stefan.
Exhibit C, 4.13 “Into The Wild”
Elena: Damon, take the cure with me.
…which can be translated into “Damon, I want to spend my human life with you, I want to marry you and I want you to be the father of my children. I want to be with you.”


