Interesting thoughts fill my mind. As I age, I find I am removing layers that adulthood has placed on me as a person.

I think back to simpler times, happier times, and although I keep moving forward, I find that the rediscovery of cherished memories help me define where I want to go.

Recently, someone asked if a teenager could even know what they want out of life. It makes me think.

As we go through school, we layer on the expectations, education, and grow.

We move into adulthood and go into service, college, and work. We add on more expectations, more knowledge.

Some marry, some don’t, some have children and we layer on more experience and learn to appreciate other people’s needs in some cases. We take on obligations and make promises as well.

But, are we growing or layering and covering up our true selves?

I hope it is a mix personally. The child who loved to swim and walk in nature can still find peace when in the pool or on the trail as an adult. A person can stand in their home and realize all they have doesn’t really define who they are and can start to shed it all to get to where they want to be. The woman who has struggled her whole life with emotions and self-doubt can grow and learn from them, and appreciate how those same emotions can guide her to find her true self.

Promises and obligations should be kept, especially to children and parents who deserve all of the love and care in the world. Sacrifices still will be made.

But, I look at my parents and grandparents; contrasting their lives. Both sets of my grandparents met in school, married, faced trials and tribulations, but stuck through the rough years and both surpassed 50+ years of marriage.

My parents met at roughly the same age, but as they grew, they changed and needed to go separate paths to find their own ways through life, finding different partners better suited for their vision, even with a child in the mix.

Each person’s path on this journey called life is different. We have to respect that if nothing else.

Here’s to the journey, for it may not be straight, hopefully it isn’t always boring, and may it lead us to better places, whether that life was imagined at age 14 or discovered at 75 or a blend somewhere in between.