Non-Traditional Path

As someone who loves tradition and rules (look for an upcoming post on this topic), I find it humorous that most of my life I have sought out the path that is non-traditional. Paths that were not traveled by many other people, and hence were rarely companioned by people with similar experiences. Some examples include:

- Leaving Sunday School in 9th Grade to Teach while all of my friends stayed in class.

- Leaving my home church while I was in high school to attend a church different from my parents, but that I loved and grew at.

- Transferring colleges after my first year.

- Graduating college a semester early, after working extremely hard to earn two majors and three minors associated with my degree.

- Serving a church four hours away from my seminary, by choice.

- And now, most recently, preparing for a mid-year, appointment change.

These are just a few examples. I raise them not to suggest that no one else has ever experienced these things, or other non-traditional paths, but simply to point out that they are not the road most commonly traveled. I often wonder why I go down the non-traditional path so often, and what I missed by going on the rocky path. Did I miss companionship by not staying at school for my last semester? What different experiences could I have gained if I wouldn't have spent my last year of seminary splitting time between a church and school, which were a considerable distant apart?

If I do not catch myself, I can end up spending too much time playing the "what if" game, instead of appreciating the paths I have been led have resulted in where I am today. Yes, at times I wish I would have done things a bit more conventionally, if for no other reason then to have more people who could identify with what I experienced, but that simply is not who I am. I am not a person who does things the easy or expected way. Something that I must honor instead of dwelling in what might have been. I also need to remember that while the non-traditional path has difficulties that accompany it, so does the traditional path. Neither is better, or less challenging, then the other. Both simply cause us to go on the journey to who we are today and who we will travel on to be in the future.