For years I envied my friends whose lives mapped to the “normal” template, who hit all the appropriate milestones in the appropriate order: learning to walk, starting school, finding a passion – or at least a predilection – starting a career, raising a family, buying a small house, maybe a bigger house, getting older, a little fatter, a little richer.
The requirements for an orderly life are so simple: Pick a goal, commit to a course of action, and follow through. The people who followed that trajectory became concert violinists at age 20, doctors, attorneys or heads of corporations by 45, had their families, bought their houses, raised their children.
I didn’t. I rambled, improvised – stumbled and got up again, followed my curiosity. This is not a path for the faint of heart. But it is a path of great opportunity, of surprises, learning, friendship and adventure.
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