Life is Not Linear

Ask any of the successful people in your life how they got to where they are. Chances are it wasn’t a direct path, but instead was colored with twists and turns and lessons along the way. Why should our stories be any different?

We’re spoon-fed the idea that we can do anything we dream of doing, but at the same time are coaxed down a path of society’s accepted norms. Go to college, get a degree, find someone to settle down with, think outside the box—but make sure not to color too far out of the lines. It took me awhile to accept the fact that maybe what I was grasping for this whole time was the validation that life is not linear, and it doesn’t have to be.

I struggled with the guilt over being a stereotypical “millennial". Here I was, restless and unfulfilled by my cushy desk job at the ripe old age of 24. Physically un-calloused, but for some reason emotionally drained from the path I chose. Why was I so jaded and unsettled only three years out of college? Why couldn’t I just be grateful that my decisions over the years had catapulted me onto the path I thought I wanted? Was I always going to feel like there was something more—some lofty bigger purpose that I wasn’t fulfilling?

I mulled it over and questioned why I couldn’t just quit my job to figure out not necessarily what I wanted to do with my life, but rather who I wanted to be. And that’s when I decided, why the hell not? With all the corners of the world at my fingertips, why wouldn’t I spend my time exploring the streets of Rome and the jungles of Thailand? Why shouldn’t I find myself on a mountaintop in Peru, or the black sands of Panama? I don't want to spend my precious days counting down the hours, slowly watching my life pass before me. So why not take a leap of faith and invest my time and resources in myself?

Blame it on my millennial values, my restless soul, or my selfish heart—but if there’s anyone in this world I’m going to place a bet on, my money is on myself. I don’t want to wake up one day wondering what I could have explored, experienced, or immersed myself in. There’s an entire world out there to explore and no promise of what tomorrow might bring. But for me, I know it’ll be one hell of an adventure.

#ChallengeAccepted