Living a Derailed Life
And Being Ok With It
As a child, I had the typical dreams of being a veterinarian or owning a zoo. In high school, my choices became a bit more appropriate for me: either a Spanish teacher or an interior designer.
But as life would have it, the route I had planned is not the one that I took.
I had been accepted to two really good colleges, and decided not to go to either, thinking that I could take a year off, work, and date a guy that was terrible for me.
I abandoned my dreams and chosen career paths for a man that didn’t care anything about me nor them.
A major shift in priorities
A year later, I started dating someone new, and a positive pregnancy test came along not long after. Suddenly, my priorities changed and my already tenacious personality was kicked into high gear. My future child was now my priority.
We got married and began a family, bought a home, and became pregnant a second time. But we were happy. Working, caring for our family, and thriving with what little we had.
Halfway through the second pregnancy, we decided to pursue ministry, believing that we had a calling on our life. We went to seminary for 2 years and were sent to a church far from home. It was where we felt we should be, and our entire future was planned for us. We would serve the Lord and go wherever the Church wanted to send us.
Yet another twist
Less than 2 years later, my ex-husband committed a terrible crime: sexual assault of a minor. And he destroyed not only the life of that girl, but everything we had. We lost our job, our home, our friends, our marriage. After 27 months of ups and downs, he fled the country after being sentenced to 10 years of probation. (You can read more here.)
And I came home with my two kids to start life over from zero.
Forging a new path
Initially, I used my existing skills that I had learned in seminary and in the field (bookkeeping and basic accounting being two of them) and applied it to finding a new job. I attended an online school to get a degree in finance, and ultimately ended up in IT. Completely different than I had planned or expected when I was a teenager exploring colleges.
A new destination
Even though life is nothing like I thought it was, and I took many paths and detours, I still ended up in a life that I love for the most part. There will always be some areas that I want to change or pursue, but I am happy.
I have my two daughters (now 19 and 17), a new husband who loves and supports my new dreams in every way, and two stepchildren (now 12 and 8). I have a wonderful career, a great home, and dreams of writing.
Life doesn’t always take you in the direction that you wanted to go, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get back on track and follow your dreams.
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