Every single decision you make in life takes you in a different direction in the story of your life like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Each decision shaping your life in a new way, shedding light on something you didn't know about yourself, making or breaking you. I've always had a writer in me. Becoming a geek happened as an accident, consequence of one of those voluntary turns in the story.
Although the writer component had always been there, it had been subdued overtime. Life happens, you grow older, and out of a sudden, the choices you make in the adventure direct not only your life, but the lives of those who depend on you, as well. The choices also divert you farther away from the original beginning, changing the adventure's experience along the way.
Sometimes, in a twist of fate, you are given choices that reset the adventure to the beginning and give you the ability to revisit paths you were always meant to take.
My twist of fate happened on this very day, four years ago. After working in IT for over fourteen years, I made one decision that reset my adventure to the path of becoming a writer.
As I said before, it had always been there. I wrote short stories from an early age. Following my father's footsteps, I dabbled in poetry in my teens. I was so confident in becoming a writer, I took Literature in university. Not long after that I selected a new page in the story and veered into technology.
I can't quite say it was the wrong choice. Science and technology had been simmering under the surface—supressed by my greater love for reading and literature in general—but they are big turn-ons to me. As much as it might sound strange to non-geek people, I get a real kick out of anything technology related, particularly coding. Those who know me, and have seen me in my zone, know that designing wireframes and creating imagery to encase the harshness of code can draw me away for hours.
When one learns that, one can then understand that the twist in my Adventure was somehow meant to be. By becoming the total geek I turned out to be, I could fill in some awfully big shoes comfortably in 2010, and by filling his shoes, I took the final turn in my Adventure, one that led to the writer I am today.
The best part of it all is that I'm not alone in this unpredictable Adventure. I get to choose new directions, walk new paths with the best partner one could ask for. Happy Anniversary, Ceci! That we have many more years to make more crazy choices ahead of us and many more lives to live in the shoes of our characters.
Sláinte!
