Life's plans don't always follow your path

How much of life didn't turn out the way you planned or imagined it? If you're anything like me, pretty much all of it.

Are you disappointed? Maybe a little, but I really don't have time to sit back and dwell on it.

Last question: At the end of your life, will you have regrets? Heck, why have regrets over what you can't change? You don't get do-overs in life.

I struggle with the idea of childhood memories. I remember very little before the age of 6. I wonder if my mind blocked out most of everything before the divorce. Anyway, I try to think of my earliest thoughts about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn't have very strong role models. My grandmother was a domestic for old people, until she got old herself. My mom worked a couple of jobs after the divorce -- one at a frozen food plant, the other at a canning factory. I think I wanted to be a teacher for a time, since I saw lots of women in that occupation.

So what did I plan? I remember thinking about being a geothermal engineer. I have no idea out of what cloud that idea came. Then I wanted to be a meteorologist. Eventually, I got into high school and figured out my interests and aptitudes, and narrowed it down to a journalist or pastor. When I found out I needed to go to school for four years for the former, and eight years for the latter, I made my decision. I didn't know how I was going to pay for four years of college, let alone eight.

I actually asked this question on my interview for my first professional job: tell me about your retirement plan. I seriously thought I would work at that job until I retired. And I worked for the same company for 15 years. Retiring from the company you start with is such a foreign concept today. People change jobs and even career fields throughout their lifetimes. I slid from writing to graphic arts to community relations. And then a transition I didn't think I would survive -- I was an office manager for a year.

Then a nonprofit manager for a couple of jobs until my current position as an executive director of a nonprofit. If you had asked me if I ever thought I'd head a social service agency, even as a young adult, I would have asked what kind of drug you were on. I didn't plan it, I didn't imagine it, and some days, I still can't believe I do this.

Where would I go tomorrow if I had the pick of any career? I think I'd try to return to writing full-time. But that isn't how life works -- you make the best of where you land. Bloom where you are planted, a pastor once told his congregation.

Tomorrow happens, and I get up and try to help people change their lives for the better. Being able to make a difference for one person is rewarding. It is where I've been planted, and I like to think that's part of a plan that goes far beyond me. When He wants me to be somewhere else, he will move me, uproot me, shake me off a little and let me land. Trust that this is the place I'm intended to be right now.