In response to my last blog post,
my good friend Codie gave me some of the best words of wisdom. He wrote:
We make our choices based on what
we know. One of the funny things about life is how confident we can be in our
beliefs, interests and dreams without any real, definitive way to know if they are
our “best” options. I’m not convinced we have an assigned plan and I certainly
do not believe that we should only have or choose one purpose. In the end, we
make our choices in life and make the best of it—remember it’s about the
journey and not the destination.
What a smart and handsome fellow. I cannot think of more
true words on the subject. However, how caught up do we get in every decision
we make?
I’m kind of a stewer. I think about
something and then sit on it, think and then sleep on it, talk it over with
friends, write a pros and cons list, do some research, wait for the absolutely
last moment and then go with my gut. I can be ordering food at a restaurant or
deciding to buy a house—all the same process.
Codie is so right, though. I can
tell you exactly what I believe, what my interests and aspirations are, but was
my decision on where to go to college the “best” one? I don’t know. I’ll never
know, I suppose. But I can say, I will own each decision I’ve made. Own them
and love them. Because they are mine. And I’m in the drivers seat for my
journey.
Right after every important decision
I’ve made, I’ve had a big, oh-God-what-did-I-get-myself-into moment. I applied
to exactly one scholarship in high school—not something I’d recommend. But I
got it. It was basically a full ride to anywhere in the state of Nebraska. I hadn’t
looked a single school in my home state. But taking the scholarship and choosing
to stay in Nebraska helped me study abroad twice. To have 2 majors. To meet two
of the greatest people I get to call my friends. Going to UNO lead to the best
college job. This job was a chance to work in a field that I now call my profession
and led me to my Omaha family.
My decision to take that
scholarship helped me save enough money to go to grad school—another decision
where I had an oh-crap moment as I walked up to my college in Los Angeles. But
there I met more people I love and my writing has grown from a childhood hobby
to my dream career.
While in grad school, I accepted an
extra job after much stress and debate with my friend and boss and my mom about
whether it was something I wanted to do. This brought me to more friends—a
group of people I still talk to almost daily even though I haven’t worked there
for almost a year. People I think I’ll talk to no matter where I go in life.
And I think that’s really what life’s
all about. We go all these places and meet people and they’re the best part of
the journey. The things you see, the conversations you have, the quality of the
time you spend.
And I’m not saying that everyone
you meet and everywhere you go will be rainbows and unicorns. You’ll meet some
people that will impact you for a day or join you on your journey for a year.
But that doesn’t mean they’re there to stay. And that’s OK. Sometimes it’s hard
to let people walk out of our lives or to walk away from others, but we can’t
all be on the same path. That’s no to say that these people mean less to us
that those who stay with us for a lifetime. These people and places we walk
away from can sometimes teach us the most about ourselves. We think nothing of
using a car until it is no longer of use to us, but we tend to hold on longer
to other big decisions than letting them go and moving on to the next part of
our journeys—so says the girl who almost has a panic attack when the waiter
asks what she wants and she can’t decide between the fajita salad and the
fajita burrito.
I don’t know where any of us are
going. I, like Codie, don’t necessarily believe we have a pre-determined
destination, but I love the ride so far, wherever it is I am headed. Like I
said though, I am in the driver’s seat on my own journey. I hope you can
embrace your life as well and own that ride you’re on, making it the best.
Because we only get one, right? Might as well make it yours.
