THE YOU EVOLUTION

Retirement is great. It gives you time to think about what some could possibly call some very useless things. Still and all, I got to wondering. 

Did my life turn out to be anything similar to what I’d envisioned as a child? 





Did yours?  What hopes and dreams stirred your soul in those tender years? Did you end up weaving them into your life somehow? 

I was a skinny little kid with a short little pixie haircut, standing at the edge of the neighborhood brook. The shallow water bubbled and flowed, swirling around small stones and rocks.  Mesmerized, I bent down and scooped up a handful of the sand.   I let my imagination go wild. Eureka! Those tiny, shiny fragments were gold!  I was Columbus. I was Cortes. I was a great explorer, discovering this precious find all by myself. Minutes later I was on my way, leaping across the waters to the other side of the world with my treasure.

I loved the idea of adventure and exploring even then. And when my parents went off to Europe on a few different trips, they exposed me to the fact that there's a whole wide world out there and maybe I could see it too. Someday. When I got big.

I’d also dreamed of being a teacher, which was pretty much what most of my other little friends wanted to be, too. Or maybe a priest...I liked playing with the church programs, pretending I was delivering the homily at mass. Well, maybe that one wasn’t quite meant to be, but what did I know?

In my teens my greatest dream was “to become an Executive Secretary.” Honest. I put it in my yearbook just like that. College wasn’t mentioned in my house, and least of all for the girls. Why spend all that money and effort when you’re just going to find a nice husband and be taken care of? (!) So I took business classes, and yes, ended up being a secretary. But before I’d made it to the big time “executive” title, a friend took me to the local university at twenty-one years old and made me apply. I did, and studied education. I was going to be that teacher after all.

Okay, so now how does one combine the dreams of teaching and exploring? Aha! By teaching in American International schools overseas, that’s how. I ended up in Guatemala and then in Barcelona. The plan had worked! 

And then “normal” life took hold. I returned to the States, married, settled into a nice house, taught, and went back to school to become an administrator. The last thing on the resume was “school principal”. (We won't mention the divorce, other than to say it led me to a wonderful new adventurous husband!)

So the next thing I want to ask is, Who am I now?   Who are YOU?
But first, go back to the original questions. 


Are you who you expected to be? Did you do what you expected to?

What were those hopes and dreams that stirred your soul in those tender years? Did you end up weaving them into your life somehow?

Please share, or at least send along a comment or question my crazy rambling may have provoked. We look forward to hearing from you!