If you had known us in college you would never have suspected that we would turn out as we did. We were roommates, not by choice but rather by circumstance. Oh, we were friends, but completely opposite in almost every way.

He had never left the state of his birth, while I had already visited most of the states in the US and half the countries in Europe, including some of the communist ones. He was quiet and shy, while I was of a more adventurous inclination. If a most-likely-to poll were to be taken back then I suspect he would have been voted most likely to get married, settle down, and live a quiet life as an accountant. It was pretty much assumed that I, on the other hand, would live a life on the run from the law, the mob, ex-girlfriends, and the fathers, brothers, and husbands of ex-girlfriends.

Somehow we both changed course after college, becoming not only the opposite of each other again but also the opposite of the person we appeared to be before. I got married, settled down, and lived a predominantly quiet life. He remained single and has subsequently traveled the globe, visiting almost every continent and country with a career in high finance.

Life is a journey full of changes, some small and others quite substantial. The direction you’re heading right now does not determine where you’ll be down the road. As with so many things it is the choices we make today that open the way for the experiences we’ll have later on.

Along the way we won’t always be moving upwards. There will be times when we find ourself heading down some pretty steep hills at a high rate of speed. It’s all part of the journey. We might find exactly what we’ve been looking for at the bottom. No matter how it may appear at the moment, with a bit of time and perspective we usually find it wasn’t the beginning of the end. It was just a new beginning.