Life's Journey

 

It has been stated by people a hell of a lot smarter than me that LIFE IS A JOURNEY...  and I suppose that they are correct in the since that our journey lasts from BIRTH UNTIL DEATH.

• The journey that we take is NEVER CLEAR.
• The journey that we take is NEVER CERTAIN.
• The journey that we take is NEVER WHAT WE THINK IT WILL BE.

Of course, when we are younger, we never picture our life as a journey, nor do we see the journey when we are middle-aged even though we no doubt have heard the term often.  It is oftentimes not until we have retired that we can look back upon the JOURNEY WE HAVE TAKEN.

When I went to college, I avoided taking classes where there was public speaking involved.  Two years after I graduated, I gave my first public speech and that type of activity continued throughout my career.

What I also discovered during my high school, college, and graduate school years is that I HATED EDUCATION.  I made fun of my teachers and professors and complained to other students when they were boring or not prepared for class.

Thirty years after I graduated from college, I accepted my first teaching position at a college that awarded associate degrees and later bachelor's degrees.  The classes that I taught were English and Business classes.

When I retired in 2015 about working for 45 years, I discovered that my life and career had been 180 degrees different from what I had thought it would be.  Not only was it different, but my beliefs and personality changed as well...  although, I never eliminated all the BAD ASPECTS of my behavior and character.

My career was FULFILLING, and I helped change the lives of numerous people...  BUT...  I never got wealthy in the process...  I always managed to earn what I needed to live a simple lifestyle.

I played football, baseball, basketball, and track in high school.  I lifted weights for about twenty years but did so not to build muscles but tone my body.  At 40 years of age, I gave up smoking, drinking alcohol, and eating red meat.  I walked or ran 2-3 miles a day, 7 days a week and ate healthy.

TWENTY YEARS later, I was diagnosed with cancer and experienced a heart attack.  Oddly enough, being healthy all my life saved me during the heart attack but did not stop cancer.  The doctor said I had a one in a million chance of one or both of these happening.

WE SIMPLY NEVER KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO US NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE PLAN...  and yet PLANNING is the only way to have a comfortable retirement.

Your journey will not doubt involve ups and down and the odds are you too will look back on your life once you retire and admit you never thought your life would turn out like this.

However, someone is bound to have seen our lives unfold before they actually unfolded...