Moody Monday: Two Roads

 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --- 

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost

I didn't start out to be different, to take the road less traveled, to color outside the lines, to march to the beat of a distant drummer.  But I largely have.  

At times I have tried really hard to fit myself into the normal boxes of life.  In many ways life would be easier, if I were more "normal" whatever "normal" would be.  But I am - who I am. 

In high school everyone thought I would become a professional photographer.  And I eked out a living for a year or so, with my perfection driving me nuts that people were actually paying for my imperfect work. Returning to photography as a hobby, I am still obsessed with it, and if I produce something you want, just let me know you are stealing using it. I am delighted to see it used, but don't really want to be paid.  

I passed the test for a real estate broker, flailed around for a couple of years in traditional brokerage offices, then went on to selling homes for builders.  A narrow limited, not very traditional role for someone with license I had.  Kind of at the peak of that work, I called the boss one day and said, I need some serious time off, like three or four months.  I walked away from a high pressure, high profit job.  With no regrets, the job was killing me. 

I went to law school at mid-life.  I turned 40 the week I started my last year of law school.  I really expected that becoming a lawyer would land me back in the building industry, I know what my former employers get away with, I could make a living suing them.  Then I went off into public interest, non-profit work.  My father never really understood why.  I did it because I found work that fed my soul.  I made a difference in the lives of people who needed someone to make a difference.  I have spent the past 14 years, helping lawyers understand complex issues, making them better lawyers, so they can make a difference in the lives of their clients.  

And rather than work until they find me decomposing at my desk, I am going to retire.  Two people have tried to talk me out of retiring in the past week.  Most people doing what I do, work a few more years. Many of them die with their boots on. I will likely go barefoot into the great beyond.   

The photo above is not a yellow wood, but it is the tracks of the Yellow Metro Rail line, at the station near my home.