First of all… once again sorry it took so long to post again! It just be like that sometimes:)

Trigger Warning: Suicide (mentioned via a fictional book character)

In life, especially in your 20s, there are SOOO many options, and every decision seems to have the power to drastically alter your life. Where to move? Who to hangout with? Jobs to take? Gap years?

I think about my life, and it’s crazy how certain decisions have shaped me so much. Switching majors led me into the extremely challenging but meaningful career I am in. My career path is what made it easy to leave my job for a while to travel. Transferring to OSU brought me in contact with the friends and clubs that led me to my outdoor hobbies being nurtured which led me to CO. Even so, I often think what if….

What if I didn’t transfer schools? What if I had gone into music? What if I went to Uganda instead of coming home? What if I had gone straight to grad school? What if I moved to Nashville instead of Denver?

My life would be completely different! And everyday I am faced with new opportunities and decisions to make that could also drastically alter my life! The constant opportunity…it’s exciting, and I know I should feel lots of gratitude for it. However, it is also really overwhelming. How do you know when you’re making the right decision!?

In the book, Nora explores these alternate realities of herself. In one life she is a rockstar. In another she is an olympic athlete. A different life she is in Australia with the whales. Every alternate life is drastically different for her. BUT she comes to realize…different doesn’t necessarily mean good or bad. In fact, these drastically different lives she thought would provide fulfillment… she was unhappy in them too. What she realized (and what I think I need to realize to myself again and again) is that happiness in life isn’t necessarily dictated by success or adventure but instead by living a life in line with our values, and even more so about the relationships we form and nurture. With that, she realized she was capable of living in line with her values and forming those relationships in her original life, and she chooses to rejoin the living again!

Reflecting on my own life, it makes me realize that maybe these decisions…maybe they are just NOT that deep. Ok sure – each one MIGHT drastically alter your life path. However, maybe there is no one right life path. Maybe each version of our lives has pros and cons and instead of spending so much energy trying to figure out the exact best life to live, it is about making the best out of the life we are living?!

To reflect on this mini post, here are just a few photos of the different lives I have lived:)