episode 3: taking the road less traveled

I am so excited to be guest blogging for Jennifer today. Three years ago I started my own blog. I thought for a long time about what I wanted to blog about, but I never could find a blogging rhythm that worked for me. Did I want it to be for family? Friends? Strangers? Did I want to be funny? Insightful? Too many decisions. So instead, my blog became a big filing cabinet for fun ideas I found all over the internet. Projects that I had no time to tackle right now, but if I didn't keep them in one place, I wouldn't be able to find them when I did. And that is how my blog, Be Different...Act Normal came to be.
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But every once in a while I get a hankering to blog about something else. And a couple of weeks ago was one of those times. About 2 seconds after I talked myself out of posting it, I found Jennifer’s post about a guest blogger. So I jumped at the chance.
My senior year in HS, I was in the running, along with 4 other students, to be the class Valedictorian. (If you check the spelling or grammar of this post too closely, you may not believe that statement).

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Half way through my senior year I was quickly on my way to getting a B in AP Spanish. I will spare you the details of my teenage emotions that accompanied that event, but needless to say, I was pretty upset. After some thought, I ended up dropping AP Spanish and taking a drama course. A ‘B’ in AP Spanish was equal to an A in any regular elective course. I could work my butt off trying to get another B in Spanish, or I could do pretty much nothing and get an A in Drama.

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Now, you could look at that and say that I quit. I gave up. I took the easy way out. And I did. I chose the path of least resistance, but I believe I am actually better for it.
I had to make a choice. And choices are really all that we have in this life. I chose to enjoy my last semester of high school instead of stressing about studying for another AP test. My dream of being the Valedictorian was already lost, so I changed my course. Instead of being devastated, I set new goals. That year I played Jo in Little Women. That experience is one of my fondest high school memories.

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I have found, even as an adult, that allowing myself to choose the path of least resistance, without guilt, has changed my life. Sometimes I just put my daughter’s hair in a bun instead of combing out the tangles. For my sons 8th birthday he had his first store bought cake. I made the choice to give him a sane mommy for his birthday instead. I even blog about other people’s crafts so I don’t have to make crafts of my own.

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My daughter’s tangle free hair and my son’s homemade cakes aren’t going to be my fondest memories. They aren’t going to make me a better person. They aren’t going to bring my family happiness. And more and more I have found that sometimes what may seem like the easy way out is actually the road less traveled.