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.