Choices

Isn’t it interesting how life takes on a whole new meaning when something profound happens?  I was on what seemed to be a stable path when all of a sudden it took a sharp turn.  Everything shifted through no doing of mine.  The loss of control is very hard to accept.

It got me to thinking about the career path I never took and how it came to change so quickly in college.  It’s a shame in a way because I’m left to wonder... I might have been very good at the job field I never went into!

I can’t be unique in my thoughts.  I’m sure some of you had planned for a different career too.  Circumstances tend to change things. That thing called “life” happens and along the journey new routes are carved for us to choose as options. What fork in the road didn’t you take at one of those pivotal times? Did you change course on careers like me?  There are times I think about that.  Seems even more so recently because I'm more acutely aware of what I have control over and what I don't.  Sometimes we create the change ourselves and sometimes it’s out of our hands completely.

I had one of those life changing experiences in college.  I remember it was a big deal in my life and it upset me.  It was a combination of my own doing as well as my professors but I like to blame him!  I should have known better than to let it get the better of me – but live and learn.  I turned out just fine but my career could very well have been different.  I had plans to go into Psychology.  I love the inner workings of the brain and what makes people tick. I took Psych in high school, loved it and decided it was my path.

I’m not a Psychologist; I never made it past my first year in college.  I changed majors and went into Business Administration instead. I like it very much thankfully.  I'm still bothered by my bad experience freshman year of college though.  I truly had a terrible professor who had well overstayed his time in the classroom.  He was tired out, had many, many years of teaching under his belt and he really no longer cared.  It was a real shame, he has no idea how he affected me - and I'm sure others.  I got a "D" my first semester and was so disappointed I gave up.  I thought it was me.  It didn't dawn on me until many years later that someone else instigated my change of direction.  At the time I figured I wasn't so good at it, being that I nearly failed so I quit and choose another path.  I find it interesting to be able to turn around so many years later and look back at that time in my life so clearly now.

The business world is a good place for me.  There are plenty of personalities to get to know and analyze.  I like to learn about my co-workers lives and hobbies and families.  I've even formed relationships with the FedEx guy; Jack, the coffee salesman; Bill and the evening office cleaner; Harold.  Not sure I could have done that as a Psychologist.  I'm glad to know these people. Yes, it's different than I had expected but it's still good.  My professor can't take that!  I'm where God wants me to be, doing what he planned for me all along. There's a reason I spend time with the ones around me and a reason I'm in their path too.

Here's hoping you're headed down the path you chose for yourself.  If so, good for you!  If not, what are you going to do about it?  Don't let the "crappy professor" in your life alter your plans!  Focus forward and keep plugging along.  It'll be worth it to pat yourself on the back and know you did it regardless of the hurdles.  

Thank you for reading.