Crossroads

My wife and I are at a major crossroads in our life. We’ve been married a year now, lived in our apartment for almost a year now, have been graduated for a year now, and have been working for a year now. We have done so in a day-to-day fashion. About the only long-term planning we have done is saving money. We’ve been saving for several things—a dog, a car, a house, emergency, etc.—but nothing specific. Our one-year lease is almost up and we have to decide to stay or move. We love our apartment, but we want more. We also want to save to do bigger and better things, so we will probably stay and save more. Neither of us are doing anything that deals with the degrees we received from our respective institutions of higher education. I am a data entry clerk and I do just that, I enter data. My wife just got a new job, a more permanent job which gives us the ability to do more. We’re still deciding what we want to do next because neither of us wants to stay in these jobs long-term (5+ years). I have had a door opened for me that I hope will lead to a new, better job. My wife has found a graduate program that she would love to pursue. Both would give us an opportunity at a “real” career or at least a glimpse of one. Yet at the same time we have a dream. Not the Dr. King kind, but similar. We both have a desire to live and to experience. We don’t want to just travel the world we want to live in various places throughout the world. We’re not content with living in Norfolk, in Virginia, in the eastern United States, or the Western hemisphere. We want to go and do. The first place we would live would be Europe and most likely England. When we tell people about that wish and they respond “Why?!” I can only think “Why NOT?!”. There is so much to the world, so many corners and niches to find that it would be a crime not to search for them. We are at a crossroads in that we have to decide to do what we want to do or do what previous generations say we must do. But why should we be forced to live within their parameters? It’s our life; we are the here and now. We are the ones that can change and are changing the world. Maybe the problems that previous generations faced and the problems our generation is facing is because a lack of understanding of the world. If previous generations understood the world and the various cultures/people within it do you think there would be such divisiveness between Christians and Muslims? They have been divided for centuries, but not for the reasons they are today. They first divided over doctrine and land—the Holy Land—because it was sacred to both. I don’t think either should stake claim over it, for the world is not one persons or a particular groups. Today, they are divided because of ignorance. Neither culture understands the other and therefore neither culture respects the other. So maybe my wife and I can change the world by living, going and experiencing what the world has to offer. Maybe respect is the key to solving the world’s problems. For with respect comes understand, with understanding comes cooperation and with cooperation comes an ability to solve our problems together.

My wife quoted me a study that said our generation would change professions/careers 7-10 times before they settled on one. Instead of previous generations where they basically have had one, maybe two jobs their entire lives. My wife and I are at a crossroads—do we live our life the way we want, pursue what we want; or do we let others dictate where we go and why?