Worlds Passing

When I drove into Corvallis yesterday, I stopped at Winco to spend my two bucks on healthy snacks since I was hungry. As I walked in the door, I saw a couple who was talking to a university student. It was obvious that the man was a beloved professor with his wife shopping in a grocery store. Two other times as I was walking around in the store, I came upon this couple from behind to see admiring students pay their respects to a popular professor. What a tribute to see for a lifetime of work serving students and helping them learn about life's greatest ideas and mysteries.

I regret not walking up to them and asking what subject he taught. At the time I was painfully aware that we weren't friends, that I didn't know who they were, that we didn't roam in the same circles, that we didn't have regular times where we met to talk about life's mysteries over coffee or at a party.

I remember in the last few days telling someone that I thought the greatest pain in life is not being who you are inside. As a result of my life's choices, I didn't get my Ph.D. or teach at a university. I didn't go to medical school and become a psychiatrist to help people. I remember in college wanting to go to the University of Chicago to study with Bruno Bettelheim since I was interested in autistic children. I didn't go to law school to champion great causes. I didn't run for the U.S. Senate to help shape public policy and law. I think there are many like me out there who didn't reach the mark or accomplish their dreams so that at 58, they are living a life different than they had hoped.

I've chosen later in life to be a writer and to write about what can be. I've chosen a life that's never boring, forever challenging and always learning.

My best friend in college is a member of the country club in Salem, has millions, and lives her dream of travel or whatever her heart desires. We don't walk in the same circles.

Now I write about possibilities and how life would be if I could do anything. I'm taking three novel writing courses at the same time and I plan on taking on the challenge of a second Nano Novel for National Novel Writing Month in November 2006. I plan on writing tons of books, staying healthy, and living a long life to do it all.