I’ve been thinking.  Deep thinking isn’t something I do a whole lot of, as I don’t have the time, but there is something I’ve been pondering lately that I wanted to put here.  (Watch out, I may get all philosophical for a minute.  But don’t worry, it’s fleeting.)

I read a lot of other blogs (which I will eventually link to when I get around to it), and some of these people have had really exciting lives.  You know, like they’ve lived all over the world, gone to boarding school or traveled extensively, that sort of thing.  While I am very happy with the life I have had so far, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have that sort of excitement, you know? 

I have always wanted to have an interesting life like that.  Where when a faraway place is mentioned, I could say “oh yeah, I used to live there”.  I don’t know why I’ve always thought that would be the ideal life, but there it is.  Although, I guess that kind of “worldliness” can be off-putting to some people, depending on how you present it.  (Warning, tangent ahead.)  A girl that used to work at my office had that air of snooty superiority about her.  Her father was an officer in the Army, and she has lived all sorts of exotic places.  And the places she hasn’t lived, she’s traveled to.  Japan, Denmark, Turkey, you name it.  She always made sure to tell you all about the things she learned, and the people she encountered.  She always managed to make the rest of us feel like country bumpkins without a clue.

On the other hand, one of my best friends from high school has been living in Europe for the past several years and travels the world in her spare time.  She’ll send a postcard from Finland, or Prague, or the Great Wall of China.  Her sister teaches English to rich kids in Thailand, and between the two of them they have seen pretty much every country in the world.  Yet neither of them is pretentious or snobby at all.  Hmm.

When I was a kid, and even on into high school and college, I just wanted to see what else was out there.  I wanted to travel and explore the world.  I see movies like Indiana Jones and think “Wow – that would be the most awesome life”.  There was a point where I wanted to be like James Bond.  Realistic, no?  I always assumed that after college I would get a job with the FBI or CIA and get cool assignments to exotic locales.  Somehow it never happened, I guess maybe I never knew how to make it happen.

I’m not sure if this long, rambling post has much of a point, but I guess I’ve just been thinking about my life path for some reason.  I have a beautiful, healthy, brilliant son, a wonderful husband, a loving extended family, and a house and job that I love.  So I think the moral of the story is:  even if your life hasn’t turned out exactly as you expected, it can still be pretty damn great.