You’d lived your life, on ITS own paces, that, is the only way to live, because each and every life has its own paces, there’s no right or wrong way to travel, or when or how the milestones should be reached at certain age, translated…
It’d taken me thirty years, to finally arrive in the realms of my dreams when I was younger, I was already, too far from my mindset of when I was twenty, but, I’d captured everything I’d encountered on the way inside of me.
Back when I’d gone out with my families as a child, I’d always told them, full of confidence, “This is the shortcut, it’s going to get us there quicker, I know it!”, and yet, it’d always, taken us thirty minutes more, and yet, we’d discovered a brand new fruit plantation we’d not encountered before, met a ditch, and encountered a few more friendly dogs………
Naturally, I have a different definition of what shortcuts were compared to my loved ones’. My families shortcuts is finding a shorter way, getting to the destination, soon as possible; mine, I’d interpreted it as “following wherever the road le4ads, and get something in the end. If everybody has a map of her/his own life, I’m probably on a shortcut, to the long way around; went to work in the factories after high school, then, take my college entrance exams; after having children, I’d gotten started in a career; and as my kids started working, I’d, left the country to study abroad.
And now, sitting in the lecture halls, far from home, I’m unlike those younger students who’d taken the shortcuts and gone abroad, so I’d not needed to worry about having that competitive edge like Vanessa from Macau, or the Serbian beauty who’s troubled by love, or that little handsome Dutch lad, Peter, worrying about not making the grades.
I’d switched my pairs of glasses, one for the board, one for my text, having traveled the long way to get here, if I could understand the lectures, then, I’d, digested the material in peace; and on the lessons I couldn’t quite get, I’d used my own life, to chew on the cultural differences, and, I am able to, enjoy this ordinary life in France, all because I’d one the shortcut that took me the long way around.
Went to school in the rain, squatted by the furnace to do my assignments, visited the libraries in the cold. Yes, I’m over fifty, and still, gone ahead with this self-confidence I have for the direction of my life, and still believed, that after taking the long way, that shortcut that fell before me, is leading me someplace amazing.
And so, this person had, managed to find the philosophy that’s worked for her in life, she’d, taken the long way around, gone in the opposite directions compared to the vast majority, and, by keeping her own pace, she’s, staying true to what she knows, and, even though she’s already in her midlife years, the love she’d found for learning new things, is still, flourishing, and that, is what’s most important, to NEVER lose that sense of wonder, to always have the desires, to learn something new in life!