A long long time ago, when “social media” was still a baby, text was king instead of pictures, and teenagers put the deep quotes we felt defined us.
One stuck with me all the way through to the thirty minutes before an interview I was hoping change my life and give me hope I could pay rent the week after graduation. Renegade was on my playlist as I walked through campus to the interview. Jay-Z’s last bars before the chorus was
“No lie,
just know I chose my own fate
I drove by the fork in the road
and went straight'”
This stuck in my head for a few reasons. I felt like I always had to do things different. My Mom drilled in me there was always another way to get something done, whether it was not accepting ‘you can’t’ for an answer or the excitement of creating something yourself. My reluctance to follow the crowd could be awkward and sometimes distanced me from others. I’ve had friends annoyed by my tendency for Irish goodbyes because I wanted to do something they didn’t, and a boss who called me “lone wolf” because I disappeared to network when we traveled instead of hanging out with the same people I sat with everyday. I’ve fought for roles in my career that were major shifts in function or scope and still have to sell myself in interviews as a “Generalist” competing with Specialists.
It also reminds me of physical roads. My happy place is in high altitude mountains hiked over multiple days with everything I need on my shoulders. I loved to map out side treks where I could spend hours in solitudes hiking through the Aspens and large granite mountains without seeing anyone for hours or even overnight. I get more out of this purposeful wandering then any jam packed productive agenda.
Each fork in the road is a decision point. Your life is a combination of the decisions you’ve made. The path everyone else is taking is not always the best, and sometimes you have to make your own.
This site is my attempt at planning and preparing for those choices, eliminating anything that is not essential, and wandering through life with the purpose of learning something new daily.