Something to Think About

Never, never, never in a million years would I have guessed then that I would be where I am now. Which seems pretty obvious. I mean, really, how many of us end up in any way where we thought we would? And then it dawned on me that maybe I'm the strange one (yes, it still can come as a surprise after all these years). After all, I know lots of people who are where I imagined they would be, where they always talked about being.

Perhaps it's just a failure of imagination. I don't really remember having any clear vision of where I was headed in the first place. Oh there were vague notions of traveling and being on stage, but nothing specific. I knew I wanted to leave Colorado and move far away from my parents and the stifling small-town environment, and, well, that's about it.

There's a line from the play, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, by Jane Wagner, that's haunted me ever since I first read it in college: I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.*

Are you where you thought you would be? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Did you get what you wanted only to realize you didn't want it at all? Or did you just drift like I did with no clear vision? Has that worked out for you or not?

*A quick search on the fancy Internet turns up lots of attributions of this quote to Lily Tomlin. Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner write together (as well as being life partners), and Lily Tomlin starred in the original Broadway production of this play. Which is a meandering way of saying, my attribution may be wrong. Please don't sue me.