Are we what we thought we would be?

What did you want to be when you grew up? And now that you have grown up, are you that which you had dreamed about in your youth?

I suspect the answer is "no" in a great many cases.

Does it make you sad or happy? Are you content with who you are and what you have accomplished? Do you desire to change? And are you willing to do the things needed to effect that change if you so desire it? Or is it simply easier to stay where you are in life for fear that you may lose what you have with no guarantee of achieving that which may otherwise grant you that which you sought in your youth?

For me, I am not spending my life in the way that I envisioned when I was younger. This does not mean that I am necessarily unhappy or discontented - anymore than I am totally happy or content with life. Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that I am comfortable with my position in life today. But comfort can have both a positive and a negative connotation. On the positive side, I do not lack for the things I need and want (most of the time, anyway). On the negative side, there is little challenge to those things that I do and my sense of purpose is sometimes lacking as it seems I simply ride the waves rather than steering my way to a specific destination.

I suspect I am not the only one who simply rides with the waves in whichever direction they flow. But I am starting to work toward a specific destination as I would like to have a little more control over the direction I seek to go. It is a slow process and filled with many detours - much as it seems my life prior to now has gone. However, I regret no experiences that have brought me to today and will try to be accepting of those detours in the future as I remember that life is not the destination but the journey.