Taken To New Heights

A long time ago, a friend of mine and I were having a drink at a local bar, and the topic of how life was treating us came up. After a quick run-through from the both of us, my friend says to me “Just remember -- you only get one plane ticket in life, and you’re the one who chooses the destination.”

While I always remembered that particular line that my friend said to me way back when, I sort of disagree with the “one ticket” idea. I believe we’re all given a series of choices that we all make at one point or another in life, with each choice represented by a “ticket”. It’s the culmination of those choices that makes us who are at any given point in time.

We’re all given many tickets, with each one assigned to a specific part of our life. I can envision one ticket as a choice between going to school and going to work. Another ticket might be about your choice of careers. There could be many tickets, with each one leading to the final destination of how our lives eventually end up.

Where to live, who to love, what job to take. . .ticket, ticket, and ticket. You catch my drift.

It would seem that you’re constantly on the airplane, but making a lot of stops and starts in order to straighten out and make a choice as to where you want to go on a specific ticket.

It’s always good for a person to set goals in their lives. We’re able to reach goals and thus end up at our plane ride’s intended destination when we focus more on the things that we can change in our lives, as opposed to worrying about those things that we can’t change.

The choice on how to use each ticket is left to each and every one of us. No one puts a gun to anyone’s head and forces anyone to make one choice over another. It’s always been about free will, and what makes one comfortable within one’s own skin.

Maybe the multiple plane ride concept is an analogy on what life is all about – constant movement. I always tell people that when I don’t have time for myself to do things that I want to do, it’s because “life got in the way”.

And of course, when the things we can’t change interfere with where we want our plane to take us, that’s the time when goals need to be readjusted, our plane redirected. For example, if you weren’t selected for a promotion that you really really wanted, your plans need to change in order to get your promotion elsewhere, whether it’s in another department, somewhere else entirely, or in another career path.

We ride on these planes constantly to achieve happiness and fulfillment for ourselves and the loved ones who surround us. When we find ourselves in a state of contentment, you’ll find yourself on your current plane ride for the longest time until the next major decision needs to be made.

Words to live by, I believe. . . 

(The entire Jersey Shore Retro Blogography can be found at http://longbranch.patch.com/blogs/kevin-cieris-blog. You can also follow Kevin Cieri's blog on his Facebook page, "Jersey Shore Retro" as well as on Twitter @jsretro).