...except I'm in a foreign country and I don't speak the language so I'll probably just sit in my apartment and study Russian!!!!
Did you know I'm 27 today? Twenty-seven is OLD! Ask me seven years ago if I ever, EVER thought I would be where I am right. now.
(Just in case you're not sure what the answer would have been, it would have been NO.)
Isn't that the great thing about life? I had a plan. It was a very specific plan. If you would have asked the 20-year old version of me what I thought my life would be like, it would have gone like this:
STEP 1. Marry a farm boy from Idaho.
STEP 2. Move to Idaho, live in the country with an apple orchard and a garden and some chickens and maybe even a milking cow.
STEP 3. Make lots of babies.
STEP 4. Live happily ever after.
Let's take a look at what actually happened:
STEP 1: Marry a Utah boy.
STEP 2: Move to Nashville, live in the middle of the city, and don't have a garden (grrrrr).
STEP 3: Don't make any babies. (Yet.)
STEP 4: So far so great.
Here's the funny thing: that 20 year-old version of me probably would have laughed at you if you told her, "Hey, just so you know, you'll be at least 28 by the time you have kids...and in the meantime, you'll move to an even BIGGER city than where you are now, and to top it all off, you're going to try to learn Russian because you will probably live in Russia at some point in your life."
I would have laughed, cursed my luck, and said, "That won't be for me. That doesn't sound like me. I would never do something like that."
Isn't it crazy how life works out, though? I think about that a lot. I think about what my life would have been like if I had ended up with Option #1. My first love, actually, was a guy from Idaho. I thought for sure we would end up married, and I would get [what I thought was] my dream life. I look at all of the opportunities I have had now that I would have missed if I had ended up marrying him.
The conclusion I always reach is that I never would have grown and stretched this much if I hadn't been pushed out of my comfort zone so many times. I am a homebody by nature. I am not an adventure-seeker or risk-taker, but what I have learned about myself is that I truly embrace most experiences when they actually come. I very rarely regret things I've tried that I initially didn't want to try. (MAJOR EXCEPTION: The Tower of Terror. Never, never again.)
Life is so funny. I'm just glad I've got Someone Upstairs who knows better than I do about how my life should have turned out. Because if it were up to 20 year-old me, I would be living in the sticks somewhere in Idaho with three babies and no foreign adventures, that's for sure.
Did you know I'm 27 today? Twenty-seven is OLD! Ask me seven years ago if I ever, EVER thought I would be where I am right. now.
(Just in case you're not sure what the answer would have been, it would have been NO.)
Isn't that the great thing about life? I had a plan. It was a very specific plan. If you would have asked the 20-year old version of me what I thought my life would be like, it would have gone like this:
STEP 1. Marry a farm boy from Idaho.
STEP 2. Move to Idaho, live in the country with an apple orchard and a garden and some chickens and maybe even a milking cow.
STEP 3. Make lots of babies.
STEP 4. Live happily ever after.
Let's take a look at what actually happened:
STEP 1: Marry a Utah boy.
STEP 2: Move to Nashville, live in the middle of the city, and don't have a garden (grrrrr).
STEP 3: Don't make any babies. (Yet.)
STEP 4: So far so great.
Here's the funny thing: that 20 year-old version of me probably would have laughed at you if you told her, "Hey, just so you know, you'll be at least 28 by the time you have kids...and in the meantime, you'll move to an even BIGGER city than where you are now, and to top it all off, you're going to try to learn Russian because you will probably live in Russia at some point in your life."
I would have laughed, cursed my luck, and said, "That won't be for me. That doesn't sound like me. I would never do something like that."
Isn't it crazy how life works out, though? I think about that a lot. I think about what my life would have been like if I had ended up with Option #1. My first love, actually, was a guy from Idaho. I thought for sure we would end up married, and I would get [what I thought was] my dream life. I look at all of the opportunities I have had now that I would have missed if I had ended up marrying him.
The conclusion I always reach is that I never would have grown and stretched this much if I hadn't been pushed out of my comfort zone so many times. I am a homebody by nature. I am not an adventure-seeker or risk-taker, but what I have learned about myself is that I truly embrace most experiences when they actually come. I very rarely regret things I've tried that I initially didn't want to try. (MAJOR EXCEPTION: The Tower of Terror. Never, never again.)
Life is so funny. I'm just glad I've got Someone Upstairs who knows better than I do about how my life should have turned out. Because if it were up to 20 year-old me, I would be living in the sticks somewhere in Idaho with three babies and no foreign adventures, that's for sure.
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