If there's one recurring theme in my life, and the lives of people close to me in the last year, it's that you have to wake up and see the fucking moment in front of you.
So much can change in a year. A year ago I was coaching high school volleyball, loving it mostly. It really defined me since there was little else in my life. I was about to have a life-changing event in just a few days. There were things in front of my face I didn't even know there, and it would make for an interesting turning point.
For me and Catherine, it's a weird time because we've been dating a few months, and now she's in vet school, almost two hours away. That situation makes you think a lot about life, and what's important to you. We stay together because the rare but must-haves are present (honesty, disclosure and no games), but at the same time resolve to live in the moment and take in what is going on around us. For her that means fulfilling a dream and absorbing knowledge, for me it means seeing through on life's "to do" list. When you aren't wasting time on feeling sorry for yourself or trying to manipulate people and the world around you to fit your ideal, the moment stares you right in the place and invites you to take it.
A friend of mine IM'd me tonight and asked why I though a friend of hers wasn't trying to make more of his life. To that I replied, "Everyone has a journey. some people choose to take it, others sit around in a fog and figure what they can't see won't bother them."
It takes a lot of courage to get out of the fog. Join me in tooting that fog horn. I busted out about a year ago, but I might need help being reminded to get out again.
This is something I too have been thinking about quite a bit lately. I am pretty sure it's my newly found joy in life - but now I want more.
I have lost 90 pounds and the world is my oyster. Work is going well. My family is doing well. I am contemplating getting my PhD (which would open mega doors). Things are going great. But to me and I suspect - thanks to your post - you as well, I need a push every so often.
Hell, I don't know you from anything other than one 2 minute face-to-face conversation and years of lurking in the CBuzz and CampusFish sites. But you strike me as someone who can do pretty much whatever makes you happy.
Sit down at your Mac and write that screenplay - even if nothing becomes of it, the personal satisfaction of getting your ideas on "paper" is well worth the time.
Besides, you have to eat an elephant one bite at a time.
BTW- I really like your statement about everyone's journey. Well said.