Finding Your Place
How do you know when you’ve found your place in this world? It is easy to go with the flow but so much harder to make things happen. But how do you know when it’s time to make the move? How do you know what is truly worth the risk?
The only answer I can give you is that you will just know…
One month before my 20th birthday I packed up a bag of clothes, some CDs, a mountain bike, and $186 cash and left my home in central Iowa for a new life in Colorado.
Why? Because I could see that I was going nowhere in Iowa. I was bored, becoming lazy, and seeing a future that wasn’t so bright.
But why Colorado? The truth is that Colorado is somewhere that I felt free. At such a young age I hadn’t been to a lot of places but I had been to Colorado many times and I knew I liked it better there than anywhere else I’d visited.
My family had spent many week long summer vacations in the Centennial State and for me even at a young age it felt like home. I have many memories of the Royal Gorge, Pikes Peak, Summit County, and Estes Park. I always wondered why if my parents both worked so hard all year why they couldn’t stop and enjoy the fun things in life including their own son for longer than one full week every summer.
At about the age of eight we spent a week in Summit County Colorado in a condo along Lake Dillon. At the end of the week I asked my mother a serious question.
“Mom, why are we going home to Iowa tomorrow?” I asked as seriously as an 8 year old can.
“Well our vacation is over and its time for us to go home.” She replied honestly.
“But if we like it here so much and have fun every year, why wouldn’t we just stay”
“Well, son, we have a house in Iowa and your dad and I have jobs there”, she said in that sweet way that parents use when they feel like they have to explain to children how the world really works.
“But mom, there are houses here and there are jobs in Colorado too” I replied.
I was sure that there had to be better things out there for me and my family. For years I wondered why my family didn’t live in the mountains where we loved to visit. It didn’t make any sense to me that we would choose to live somewhere that wasn’t perfect. Sure my family had a house and jobs, but isn’t there more to life than that?
I kept this in my mind for many years and when I was finally making my own decisions I made the move. I knew there was a better life out there for me. This summer will mark my 14th year in Colorado. I have never ever, even for a second regretted this move. In fact it is the best thing I have ever done for myself. I have never regretted following my dreams.
This was just what I need to hear…truly inspirational. Being at a turning point in my life, it couldn’t be a better time to follow my dreams. Now if I could just remember what my dreams are. Thanks for the nudge.
And it is so great that your parents ended up moving to Colorado also! Love this state!!