If you had asked me when I was in middle school what I would be at my age now I would have adamantly told you that I would be teaching dance.  My high school self would tell you I would be a high school English teacher.  My college self would tell you I would be in California, married to a businessman, running my own day care and taking care of my kids.  My thirty-year old self would say that I was teaching math and pursuing a degree to be a dean of students.  She’s close, but not quite.  There is no script in front of us to see what our life has in store.  Be open to the opportunities that present themselves.  Have deliberate decision making rather than taking everything that falls in your lap.  Do notice what is falling in your lap and wonder how that can impact your life.   

Steve Jobs famously spoke about connecting dots.  “You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.  So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life”.  I am writing to you looking backward at how the dots connect time and time again, having clarity in the past and living in the now.  You do not know when the connections will be made that shape your inner being, that spark your passion and make it so that you feel your best self.  I thought I was going to be an Arizona tan dance instructor after my own run acting and dancing on stage.  Instead I am a pale Washingtonian aspiring writer teaching Geometry and doing local theatre. Am I any less happy? No, I am more so because I am exactly where I am meant to be and embracing life as such.  Find the things that make you feel alive.  The things that spark your joy regardless of what other people think. If you want to keep these passions private because part of the joy is that it is only for you, then keep doing it only for you.  What tugs at your heart?  What passion can shape your destiny?  What experiences keep presenting themselves?  There might be a reason they keep showing up.  What will it take for you to listen to those?  You never know what will make the difference in the long run.