The Path We Take

I used to wonder what my life would be like if only I had made one decision that affected my life, a day later.  Or if I had taken another choice that wasn't in the mix at that moment.  Before I get to far I did say "I used to wonder".  I can safely say, I don't any longer.  I wonder if this is a result of finding our happy medium in life.  Finding our perfect wave and riding it the rest of our lives.  More about this wave later.

As we enter our teens, we are in a desperate search of who we are and we race to the finish line.  Finish high school, finish college, get that great job, find the love of our life..even if he is the first bad apple we come across.  All of this in time proves to be nothing but typical painful lessons because we refuse listen to those who have come before us.  Those with this very experience.  

Experience seems to be that key word in all of it's mystery.  Generations of children have heard from their parents and loved ones speeches and interventions trying to explain the "experience" ride.  Why is it that we can never take their advice for face value.  Why is it that we have to make the same mistakes we are warned of?  Experience.  It seems this mystery is a vicious cycle of wisdom that lands somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle of life.

I too am a victim of this insane roller coaster.  I find it eerie that I have many similarities to  my mom and her experiences in life.  I too have found the same path in the end as she did.  It seems that only some great power beyond could have possibly put us in the same realm of having such distinct similarities decades apart.  Fortunately I didn't go through a long drawn out speech, but I was given endless smoke screens as to her early years.  In the end, we took similar paths.  Could I have learned from her experience?  The answer is no.  This is why we all chose to take the hard road ahead.

Experience is only gained through the eyes of an individual.  When someone says "don't waste your money on the lotto", we can't take the advice.  We know that we may have a different result, we may have different ways of perceiving the outcome.  We may learn a different lesson.  We are convinced that we know what is best for us.  We know that the broken heart we are about to receive will be for our best interest.  We know that our bad choices are necessary for the path in life we chose to take.  

A small group of people seem to get lost in this cycle, and the rest take the path, the next path, and so on.  Each path leads us to where we are today.  Regardless of happiness, we can only accept our lives for what they are based on our choices.  In the end, our lives are our to own.  

Others may impact our lives, but it is what we choose to do that makes our worlds go round.  The experience that we gain and the memories that we build that define our happiness.  I look back on the many stupid things that I have done.  They are plenty, but I love where I am and I couldn't be here, had I not chosen the silly paths in my past.  

Today, I don't wonder "what if".  I merely question how many paths would have led to this same point.