You’ve come a long way…but are you living a life that matches your expectations ?
Are you where you want to be, or who you want to become?
Unless I miss my mark, many of you (as I once had) have traveled a long way outside of your comfort zone – your hometown or your home country – to pursue an opportunity of a lifetime.
That opportunity probably begins with a dream to have a great education, or to learn a new language and understand a new culture, or to experience a totally different way of life.
Now at this point, are you there? Are you almost there? Or are you at a crossroads?
If we’re completely honest with ourselves, none of us can say we are there, or almost there. But most definitely, we always find ourselves at crossroads after crossroads at various stages of our lives.
We’ve all heard it before – Life is a journey. It ain’t over until it’s over.
One big question that comes to mind is – what kind of a traveller are you?
If you’re like me – you’re dreamer, a pathfinder, a risk-taker, and a go-getter.
You have a dream or aspiration to succeed in an industry, to fulfill a calling or a duty.
You are willing to take risk, to cut your own path.
You go find and forge relationships, you build connection and trust.
Every time we think we’ve arrived at – a dream school, a dream job, a dream relationship, we’d discover that over time – our wants and needs evolve. Or, any of these ideal destinations, as it turns out is actually a bridge, a stepping stone. You have to move on.
But before you move on, before you take another leap, do you look back on how far you’ve come?
Summer is a popular time for long distance travel back to one’s place of origin. A time to touch base with your roots. A time to think about where you come from and where you’re going.
For years, I’d embarked on my annual pilgrimage during the summer to see my family in Hong Kong. I left them since my teenage years after my father supported my decision to discover educational opportunities in America.
In “Lean In, Take A Leap”, my blog for the Huffington Post, I describe some of these life lessons I’d learned since high school that grow with me into adulthood – including embracing uncertainty, befriending hardship and cultivating faith.
But I also realize now that for many years – I feared looking back.
In my single-minded determination to become independent and strong, I had made the mistakes of not taking the time to reflect on my roots – not returning to that point of departure to contemplate the meaning of how far I’ve come. My mantra of success had always been “look forward, never back. “ I feared looking back would somehow weaken my resolve to keep striving.
But thanks to the process of aging – over time – I see my father growing old, more tired and forgetful every time I went back to visit. I see myself fighting against time to be the daughter I want to be. I find myself yearning for more time now to give back to my father in gratitude, and to look back to my roots for a more balanced perspective on life. In a few weeks, I’d be in Hong Kong to see my father again face to face. This time, I hope my father can sense that no matter how far and how long I’ve been gone, I love him more than I can say.