Oh, the places you'll go

"Take a single step, followed by another. Don't look too far out into the future, and don't look too far back either. Stay centered in the present moment as best you can." - Anonymous

I've been having a lot of moments lately. I don't know how to describe them exactly. When I was in my 20s, every so often I'd have a brief moment where I felt myself growing into someone different, someone more adult. In those moments I felt as though a window had appeared and I could see the future, coming nearer, on the other side. Sometimes those moments were scary, but mostly they were reassuring. They told me that even though I didn't quite know where I was heading, that I was on a path - or sometimes bushwhacking, but I was heading in the "right" direction.

These days my “windows” look more like giant, wide open, patio doors. I am straddling the threshold - I can feel myself transitioning into a new era, and I can see my friends going there alongside me. Ten years ago, I was only ready to peer fleetingly through those windows. Looking back, I can see that they all opened in their own time, as I was ready.

This morning, when an old friend posted on Facebook that she was in her last year of her nursing degree, I had a moment - but this one was a little more retrospective. I paused to think about the kids we all were 10 years ago and I felt awed at all we had accomplished. I think about that ragtag group of kids, who were all exploring the depths of our newfound freedom - who were more interested in a fun friday night, than a solid plan for the future (as every 23 year old should be)... it seems amazing to me that we've all come so far. My 20s were an incredibly fun, sorrowful, exciting and growing decade - I have sometimes feared the loss of this. I have the most incredible memories from that time. Now we are young professionals, husbands, wives, parents, homeowners and a million other things I knew we'd become - and yet never understood how that might come to be. And the most interesting part? All those adult things, like office jobs, marriages, divorces, children, houses - I always thought that as I acquired them I would become less myself, more tied down by them. I always thought that I had to get my living in while I still could. But the incredible truth I have discovered is that if you choose your life, on your own terms, then you will define those choices, the good and the bad. They will make you more "you" than I could ever have imagined back then.