The Forest Through the Trees

*photo courtesy of Allison Kuhn Photography.

I’m glad I’ve spent so much time questioning the way. At first I thought it was a waste – like, why can’t I put my head down and just walk straight? Sure, I think I’ve wasted some time going down the wrong variants of the path. I’ve back tracked a bit and it sure wasn’t always smooth. But when I started walking down the right path, I knew, without a doubt or second thought, that it was right. And it felt good.

Sociologists these days say that people really don’t find themselves until 30. It’s funny, because when I was 19 I thought I knew everything. Now I look back at 19-year-old me and I don’t even recognize that girl. She never would have predicted I’d be sitting in Philz Coffee Shop in San Francisco blogging about my ideals for the company I created from the ground up. Hell, she didn’t even know what blogging was. She was trying to land a job as a journalist for a big magazine. She was going to get married by 24. She was going to write a novel by 21.

It’s not that the place I stand today is done. Nothing’s ever done. I’m not finished with the trail. It’s just that I know this is the right trail. I don’t think I’d be able to say that had I not tried all the other routes. A good friend said to me the other day, “We’ve worked hard to get where we are. We’ve spent a lot of time doing the wrong things. So there’s no sense in letting the wrong things from our past inhibit the right, nor is there any point in wasting another second on the wrong.” She’s a smart lady.

It’s a lot easier to climb when you know you’re going up.