Life is a Highway

I wanna ride it...

Nov 22, 2020

Tom Cochrane’s song, Life is a Highway could be my theme song. Not because I’ve lived any kind of wild life. I haven’t. But because its theme is that life is a journey. It’s about always moving, though you might not always know where you’re headed.

I like that idea. It’s one I’ve lived by with varying degrees of success throughout my life. At times I’ve felt bogged down and progress has seemed to stop. I think those moments, however, were times when I needed to regroup and find my bearings before moving on to the next thing.

Sometimes the movement has been literal

I’ve lived from coast to coast in Canada. I was a passenger for the earlier moves in my life, as my dad’s work in radio and television shifted us from province to province. It was kind of like being an army brat — I used to quip that I was a radio brat.

Regardless, I’ve done a lot of moving in my life. The longest I’ve ever lived anywhere was 17 years, the shortest, less than one. It’s created an ease with transition within me. I moved from Ontario to British Columbia with my family a couple of years ago. A few months after the move, my husband asked if it felt like home yet. I looked at him like he’d grown another head. Home is wherever I am at any moment. I was home as soon as I set foot inside our new house.

I’ve traveled for pleasure less than I would like. Nonetheless, I’ve seen most of Canada, parts of the U.S., Italy, Mexico, the West Indies, and large parts of Britain. I’ve always had a yen to see more of the world, but finances, family, and health issues have limited my ability to do so. One of the great things about writing is that I travel to new and exotic places every time I sit down at my keyboard.

More often the journey is figurative

Even if my physical locale doesn’t change, my life is always in flux in one way or another. I love to learn, both through formal education and informal.

In my first university stint I studied Russian language and literature. I returned to do sciences and then medicine. After my children were grown, I decided to study film, and then Japanese. They were only part-time studies and I never advanced beyond a few courses, but they were fun and broadened my horizons.

I studied life coaching and became a certified coach. I’ve taken mindfulness training, and courses in positive psychology through U. Penn. I’ve done courses in various topics on Udemy and have a library from The Great Courses. Next up is a course on website building, using a powerful tool template called Divi.

I’m a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction. If I decide a topic interests me, I research it relentlessly. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a walking encyclopedia. Something really has to strike my interest for me to pursue it. But then I’m all in.

Theater and conventions have always drawn me

I can’t act my way out of a wet paper bag, but I love theater and movies. My eldest son has been involved in theater in one way or another since he was eleven. I volunteered backstage on many of his shows. Later, when he formed his own company at seventeen, I did everything under the sun, from printing and selling tickets to running his concession stand. I even had to sub in one night when the show caller had to bow out.

I love conventions. The energy of them is amazing. I have to pace myself and so don’t see as much as I would like, but I love going. For a few years I ran the mobility access department at Toronto Trek, a now defunct, but then very successful convention in Toronto, Canada.

My daughter and I used to attend Anime North, also in Toronto, regularly. These days I run more to things like Ad Astra (a science fiction writer’s convention). I did attend Emerald City Comicon with my son and his partner last year. Unfortunately. I didn’t get much out of it, having had an appendectomy and a significant concussion a week before attending.

Whatever type of convention I attend, there’s always something to learn, even if it’s just that I’m hopelessly uninformed when it comes to anime.

I’m starting down a new fork in the road

Currently I’m writing full time, working on my YA science fiction series and producing this newsletter. I am editor in chief of Tempest Community Writers, which is just getting off the ground. I’m coaching part time and freelance editing. I have no idea where all of this is going to lead, but I’m excited to find out.

I guess,when it comes down to it, I just don’t like to sit still

I want to get on life’s highway and ride it all night long. I want to see where it will lead me, what new things I can learn. I want to take on challenges and fail, then get back up and succeed. And I don’t want age or disability to stop me.

The highway lies before every one of us. There are roadblocks for sure. But there are always other paths we can take to get where we’re going. And if a road is truly blocked, we can find another highway and let it take us somewhere else entirely. Find your highway and ride it. The journey will be worth it.

Do you see your life as a journey? How do you respond to roadblocks? I’d love to hear other perspectives in the comments.