We don't always end up where we think we will

We don’t always end up where we think we’ll be when we start out on our journey.

For some, the journey is straightforward. I think about the people in my life who knew what they wanted to do and be, and then set out to make it happen. For others, myself included, there were more twists and turns than the normal straightaway.

It isn’t just that plans change, but that we change. Or our situations change. Or we discover what we thought we wanted, just didn’t work for us. Or it just took longer to find our path.

Everyone has a special bit of work they’re designed to do. A friend of ours says it’s all about finding your gift.

My plan was to join the service right after high school; I’d planned to follow in my dad’s footsteps and go into the Air Force. What’s that saying, we plan, and God laughs? I went through all the testing and then failed the physical. Didn’t see that coming. The gift there was finding out about undiscovered health issues and getting them addressed.

I think about my dad, who cross trained from one career field in the Air Force to another. He went from B-52s to radiology tech; since I wasn’t born with natural grace, he X-Rayed me more times than I can count. After he retired from the Air Force, he worked for two doctors before “really” retiring. My sister Sarah followed in his footsteps and is a rad-tech in Texas.

My brother-in-law Georgie went to New Mexico State University to become an engineer, because someone had told him he’d be a great engineer. I’m sure he would have been; but shortly after arriving at NMSU, he discovered his passion for teaching. Before his death, he taught several generations of students in Farmington, Dulce, and Kirtland.

My father-in-law was working three jobs to provide for his young family. A passing comment from a gate guard at the Navajo Ammunitions Depot in Arizona set him on a different path. The guard remembered that he’d worked on ammunitions in the Marine Corp and mentioned a job opening as an inspector. He switched gears, and became an ammunitions depot inspector for the military. After 32 years, he retired as a GS-13.

Whether our path is made clear for us early on, or we take a while to get there, we eventually make it. It isn’t always about the destination, but the journey we’re on. If we’re lucky, we can gather up a lifetime of experiences as we pursue that passion of ours, that gift.

Patti Dobson writes about faith for The Eastern New Mexico News and Quay County Sun. Contact her at:

[email protected]