If you don’t know me that well then you might not know that I like cheesy quotes. As we have started this new year and this new decade there is one in particular that has been on my mind. It goes like this:
“If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.”
I like that saying so much because I often feel like I have no idea where I’m going in life and there might not be a direction that speaks to me. Sometimes there is, but most often there isn’t and that’s okay. It’s not even that I need a destination and even if you do have one that’s not really the point. The point is to be on the road.
Another cliche saying talks about life as a journey and not a destination. It’s also been said as “The road is better than the inn.” They mean the same thing. In both, you can’t enjoy the journey unless you’re on the road. So even if you have no direction. You have to get on the road and you have to move forward. It doesn’t matter what road. It doesn’t matter if you take two steps forward and one step back. It doesn’t matter if you take one step a month. You just have to make sure you are moving forward.
There were times in my life where I thought I had it all figured out, but life is full of surprises. At the end of my undergrad at CMU, it was down to the last two for a graduate assistantship that would have paid for my entire master’s degree. I thought this was the plan. I was confident the assistantship was mine, but they gave it to the other person. The destination that I had been moving towards quickly became far less concrete. I had to think about whether it was something I really wanted to do. If it was free sure I’d do it, but when I was forced to slow down and think about it I definitely wasn’t confident enough to pay for it out of my own pocket.
Instead, I decided I would take the time to travel. It was the perfect time in my life where I didn’t have anything tying me down. I had a new direction. Part of that direction was pursuing Muay Thai fighting in Thailand. I always loved sports and this was my opportunity to pursue a sport seriously and without the restraints of a full-time job and the more expensive cost of living, I would have had in America. Then I got knocked out in a training round and bounced my head off the concrete suffering a concussion. That derailed my plans and made me really consider the dangers of the sport I was pursuing. It didn’t stop me from stepping into the ring and having one fight, but it probably stopped me from devoting a lot of time and energy to a sport with pretty severe long term consequences. Again the direction changed. This time I focused solely on traveling. I ended up having an amazing trip that spanned 7 months, 34 countries, and 4 continents. I saw so much. I learned so much and that made me really appreciative of what we have in America.
Those experiences abroad made me acutely aware of all the blessings we have and how I had taken many of them for granted. The power of an American passport, the power of being a native English speaker, the power of the American dollar and the ability to make a decent wage, and so many other things were on full display when I was traveling. The United States has given me so many opportunities and as a result, I wanted to do my part and serve. As soon as I got back I joined the Army National Guard. I made so many great friends through training and the Army has opened up so many opportunities for me.
If my original plan of grad school had worked out as I had planned I would have missed out on so many memories and experiences I can’t imagine living without. Instead, I stayed on the road and kept moving forward even if it was a different road than I started on. Now I’m one class away from my master’s degree except this time the Army is paying for it.
Now, as I move forward now into a new decade I have some plans, but in a lot of ways, I still don’t feel like I know where I’m going. But as I learned from the previous decade plans are prone to failure and destinations are always changing, but one thing is for sure. If you stay on the road and keep moving forward you will be surprised where the road takes you.
Big Personal Impacts in the Last Decade
- Started high school
- Started first real job at Dairy Queen
- Started wrestling
- Graduated high school
- Started college at Central Michigan University
- Started working in the college athletic department
- First solo trip to Nicaragua at age 19
- Bought my first house in the hood of Saginaw to rent out
- Graduated from CMU
- Bought a one-way plane ticket to Vietnam
- Trained Muay Thai and had a semi-pro fight
- Traveled the Transiberian Railroad
- Saw the Great Wall, Lake Baikal, Auschwitz, Berlin Wall, Eifell Tower, Mona Lisa, the Rock of Gibraltar, and other cool stuff
- Slept in the Sahara desert
- Sailed a crossed the Atlantic ocean from the coast of Africa to the Carribean (Canary islands to Antigua)
- Bought a house to live in, with friends, in Saginaw
- Joined the Army National Guard and got commissioned as an officer
- Army training and the friends I made
- Started training jiu jitsu
- Started my Master’s degree
Those are just some of the things that I accomplished in the last decade. I’m excited to see where the road takes me in the 2020s. God bless!