How did I get here?

Some people have a life plan. They know early on what they want to do and be, where they want to live, what they want to accomplish. These people could be driven, they may have a sense of purpose, they may have a vision, or, alternatively, their path may have been dictated to them, by circumstance, by family, who knows?

Part of my working life has been the result of the process of elimination -- figuring out slowly what I didn't want to do, as opposed to what I wanted to do. Had I given more weight to what I enjoy (art, design, problem-solving), I might have pursued a career in architecture. But it never even crossed my mind back then.

Part of my life has been reacting to things which came along and moved me. In tenth grade, we read Exodus, in college. I took some Judaic Studies classes, after graduation I went for a summer and I knew I wanted to live in Israel someday. I later met my ex-husband in a night club there (okay, not the smartest move) during a trip for my cousin's Bar Mitzvah, returned for a year-long volunteer program called Sherut La'Am (Service to the People), during which we were married. Eight months later we came to the US to work and save money, before moving back.

Nearly a dozen years later we were divorced, and I moved back to the US, this time to Georgia. Why Georgia? I'd met my current husband online and he lived here. It turns out that he had moved back only a year earlier. He had actually lived in Israel for over 20 years, but moved back to the States, thinking it would only be for a year or two, to be closer to family. Instead, the children and I relocated and we have been here for about five years, with no plans on returning.

Now that I've created a Facebook page, I've connected up with old camp and school friends; this prompted me to take out the old high school yearbook. Inserted inside was a directory from the ten year reunion. Although I wasn't able to attend, I'd ordered it, curious to see where people were. I remember when I first read it, being surprised at how many people married others from High School, and how many had remained in the area. I, of course, was far across the ocean. And now, I think of where I currently am in my life and it's simply somewhere else entirely...

Life certainly takes us along paths we could never have predicted for ourselves.