Women Speak Online

Life in the Fast Lane

When does it all hit you that the woman you have become is only a stark image of who you want to be? That every road traveled by choice of unconscious decisions has been more powerful in the ultimate making of who looks back in the mirror. Life is the road we all learn to navigate at our distinctive pace. Some take a slower surer road; steady and consistent, while others are plagued with bumps and ruts. There are also the ones who quickly mindlessly maneuver life as if they are on a freeway changing lanes at every random opportunity.

In looking back, something I try not to do, I always wanted to be on the sure, secure slow road, but somehow remained on the ever changing, crashing, high-speed freeway. This all accrues into some brief highly passionate romances, caped by four marriages, three painful divorces (no it doesn’t get easier from experience) financial reverse, and four children. Through it all, the children are the best of life’s spoils, each one possessing strength and self-empowerment.

As we travel, we manifest emotional investments, you go into them with excitement and expectation knowing long-term slow growth is best for end gain. However, all of the unforeseeable variables can create negative margins, resulting in substantial losses. Unfortunately, these experiences often produce more baggage, complicating our inevitable future.

As long as I continue the ever-changing freeway quietly admiring the slower steady road as they all sit admiring their long-term growth, I have one great consolation. My course is my choice; I own this life with all of its lane changes, bumps, baggage and windfalls. I own this life, and every road I traveled gave me a deeper understanding of myself and every change was for the greater good. That is why some of us take the freeway.

Valerie Kelly