Crazy Curvy Road

If anyone asks me, ‘What would you have done differently in your life?’ I will answer firmly, ‘Nothing.’

Looking at my life, you might wonder why. I’ve done some silly things, and I’ve done some stupid things. I haven’t always followed the smoothest road. In fact, my life has been on crazy, curvy road that never goes anyplace fast, never does it the easy way, and never stays put for very long.

This might not sound like the best type of life, and in the past I have wished for it to be different. Three years after earning my bachelor degree, I am finally figuring out what might be a good career match for me, and getting started. Other kids from my high school are already five years into their careers. I’ve moved four times in six years, while many people my age have already settled into their first home. Some are building families, some are building careers. I am just drifting, trying to find a fit.

It seems like I always do things the slow way. Sometimes, years after I have read a book or taken a class, some point the teacher or author made finally, finally clicks. It took me eighteen years to crack the shell of shyness I lived in. It was ten years before I let someone else actually read my writing.

Life is a climb up a high mountain, and everyone must make their own road. For years I wanted to be one of those people who forge up the straight, simple path. Know yours goals, do what you need to achieve them. These people go into college with half a year of credit from AP classes, never change their major, and have years of practical internship/volunteer experience when they step into the career market upon graduation.

I can’t seem to stay on the straight path. The side trails and detours look too interesting, and I have to stop off. Yet I am beginning to realize that this is my way, the only way I can take, and the straight, simple path is not good for me.

I would never have found the career I love on the straight path-a crazy detour brought me to it. Life isn’t so much about getting to the top of that mountain to survey all that you have achieved. Life is a journey where you learn that each experience builds upon the next. As frustrating as some of our experiences are, they shape us and prepare us. Everything works together to lead me up that mountain, even though it seems like a strange, jagged path to take.

I couldn’t be where I am today without that crazy road. More importantly, I wouldn’t be happy where I am today if my path had taken me somewhere else. What look like failures, troubles, detours, wasted time, are all building blocks that we can use to pull ourselves up.

It is a crazy, curvy road. But it is the only road for me.