We often think we are going to take a certain road in life, only to be derailed off our course. Has that ever happened to you? Like you think you have it all planned and figured out then wham something happens and throws you completely off your game? That has happened to me more times than I care to admit to.
We always ask little kids what they want to be when they grow up. They never cease to amaze me with their answers. Some kids want to be an astronaut, a doctor, a mom, a dad, a dinosaur, a teacher, the list goes on. What did you want to be? I first wanted to be a nurse, then a paramedic, a teacher, then a doctor, a lawyer, and back to a nurse. So, did I become what I wanted to be? Not yet, however, I mean as parents we are all those things and more right? Parents you know exactly what I am talking about. I actually started my back to school journey to become a nurse a few years ago. I decided it was time to go back to school because I thought I was done having kids. Well, it turns out that my course had gotten derailed once again. I found myself pregnant with identical twins. I had gotten put on bed rest for five and a half months after we had found out that that there was a life or death situation with the twins. So, because of all of that I couldn’t finish out my semester. It was one stress block on top of the other. I couldn’t seem to get back on my path. Or that is, the path that I thought I should be on.
The other day I was feeling super down and knew I needed to boost my mood or it was going to make for a very long hard day. I knew I needed life spoken into me and knew that I couldn’t do it for myself, so I went on You-Tube to try and find something uplifting. Have you ever had those moments where you’re like “Oh wow I really needed to hear that at this very moment”? Kind of like it would have been good to hear that yesterday but today I really understood the words. Honestly, I have no idea what I listened to but I will find it again. It was about a bunch of celebrities talking about how they didn’t make it big until after they were 40 years old, and how many times they had to fail before they became someone great. I remember sitting in class and looking around thinking I could be each of these student’s mom. I was the oldest in the class. See what I did there? Instead of giving myself praise for fighting for my dream I spoke negative words about myself. I remember thinking how old I was and why I didn’t get my stuff together sooner like the other people did.
Why do we all have this expectation that right out of high school we need to have everything all figured out? We seem to forget that each of our journeys are different. For me, I got married right out of high school, started a family a few years later and now am working on my career. The journey that I’m on gave me my dream to raise my children. Now, had I went the other way and graduated high school, gotten a career, then got married, I probably wouldn’t have been able to raise my children because of work. You have to remember that each of us are different and are on our own paths. So please don’t be discouraged if you aren’t where you want to be. I know sometimes it's really hard to see what direction you’re going- but keep going! It’s funny how we all have it in our head the way it “should be” or what age we should get things done. Did you know that Steve Carell was 43 years old when he made it big? Morgan Freeman was 50. Betty White was 51, and Melissa McCarthy was 41 just to name a few. So, you see you don’t have to be eighteen years old to have it all figured out. Your dream is your dream. It was given to you no matter what your age is or where you came from. Its not about where you’ve been, it’s about where you’re going in life.
Sure, there are going to be detours. Things will not always work out the way you want them to and life might punch you in the throat like it does me sometimes. If you have that fire in your soul to do something, then do yourself a favor and go do it. How many books will never be written because someone said that they didn’t like what you wrote? How many of us will stop our dream because someone has a problem with what we are doing? Rule number one is forget what people think about you. As long as you know who you are inside and what you’re supposed to be doing in life, other people’s opinions of you are none of your business. So keep your head held high and keep looking forward.
In a few short hours I will be starting class again. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little freaked out. I’m 35 years old and a mama to four beautiful babies. I haven’t been in school for over 4 years, but do you know what? I got this, and if I got this so do you. Age is nothing but a number, so don’t ever let that discourage you from becoming your best self. If I would have stayed on the path that I thought I should be on, I would have never had the vision that I do now. I’m thankful for the derailment but ready to be back on track. How about you? Have you become what you wanted to be? Are you where you want to be? You may not always see what you have to offer but know that you are capable of so much more than you think.
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