A Different Life

“You’re daring to accept that you could have a different life” –You’ve Got Mail

This is not exactly a source from which you expect deep or important lines (although I do really love the movie) but I find these words to be very perceptive. This really is a big part of what makes change so scary (in addition to the whole giving up who you are thing) and sometimes so wonderful.

A man I worked with until recently had been at that company for over 10 years, and as far as I know had always followed pretty much the same career path. Just a few months ago he left to--get this--become an intern on a farm, learning all about sustainable living and working the land. This is a guy who's in like his mid-to-late 30's and had a job and an apartment and a life that was going just fine, and he has dropped it all to try something new. Part of the reason he can do this is that he isn't a father or a husband, but more importantly it's something in him that allowed him to consider other possibilities even when he was comfortable. So far change has always been set out for me: my parents move, I graduate high school, I graduate college. But I'm sure it can be so easy to get settled in a way of life and just stop questioning it, stop wondering whether there was anything else you ever wanted, and go with the flow. I so admire this man for having the perspective to question what he wanted separately from what he had, and then the bravery to pursue the other desires he discovered. I hope that I will find something similar within myself and will never wake up to find that I have lived my life complacently, to become only satisfied and never truly happy and fulfilled.