I've always considered myself to be a curious sort of person. I’m not afraid to ask questions, to examine different options, and to experiment until I find the right answer. Perhaps that’s to be expected when your parents are a Librarian and a Physicist.
When I was younger, I was fascinated with how things work. I used to take apart old radios and telephones just to see what the inside looked like and how all the parts moved together. I could almost never put anything back together, but that wasn’t the point. That mechanical curiosity faded by the time I was a teenager and was eventually replaced by a more personal curiosity.
I’ve never really been able to answer the question ‘What do you want to be’. Or at least not in a way that people expect. While many of my peers would respond with details about their career aspirations, my answer is more abstract. I want to be happy. I want to be the best version of myself. That’s all I’m looking for in the world. I don’t aspire to a corner office or an expense account and I’m not looking to raise a family, at least not yet.
On the surface, to be myself and be happy seems trite and simplistic, but if you really think about it, it’s an involved, never-ending project. People are not stagnate and happiness is a day by day process, not one final destination. To be the best version of myself is an ever evolving undertaking involving issues of spirituality, self-confidence, learning and growth.
In this column I want to consider those topics and the questions they invoke. I want to look to religions from all over the world and learn from them. I want to talk to women I admire about their own journeys. I want to reflect on what practices and actions work for me, which do not, and why. And I want to learn from you, what has made a difference in your own life and helped you become who you are today. What are our strengths and how can we strengthen our weaknesses.
We all have a journey and a destination, and everyone’s path is different. This column is about how I’m making my way in the world. My interests, experiences, beliefs and thoughts are just that, my own. Life is not one size fits all and there isn’t one right answer, but that’s what makes it interesting and exciting. I’m not the expert on living your life, but I’m trying to become an expert in living mine!
I hope you’ll read along and comment, maybe even be a little bit inspired, I’m sure I will be.
This is Me, Making My Way.