As kids we played board games and one of my favorites was "Life". I remember playing and thinking how unrealistic this game was. Now, I find that it was actually semi accurate.
You began the game by choosing whether or not you would attend college and start the game being $40,000 in debt and having to eventually pay it back at $50,000. The other option was skipping college and having a few less career choices. Even if you went to college, you were not guaranteed a higher paying job. I would always get frustrated when I did the college route and ended up with the $20,000 or $30,000 a year job. Growing up, we were told to go to college and get an education so that we could make a lot more money. That was just how things were. If you went to college, you were going to be rich as opposed to those who went straight to work after high school.
Real life has now set in. Being an adult is no where near as fun as it used to seem. I did the college route and came out around $25,000 in debt and more than that to pay back. I have been out of school for a little over 3 years and am working an ok job which barely pays me $20,000 a year. I guess that game wasn't so far off after all.
During the game you encounter things like losing your job, getting married, family vacations, car accidents, and putting the kids in school just to name a few. All these things cost money. I remember the car accident would cost $5,000 in medical expenses.
In real life, my car accident is costing much more than $5,000 in medical costs alone. Not to mention the $5,500 (and counting as they find a few more problems) just to fix my poor car. They never explain to you the mental trauma that happens on top of the physical. In the game, you just pay the fees and move on with life.
As fun as that game was sometimes, I always thought it was way off base. Now that my life is being lived, I see how true that game could be. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, the only things certain in life are death and taxes. We never know what is going to happen next. Life is a journey. I didn't plan to leave college and make $20,000 a year. My plan was to teach in the local school system starting at $34,000 a year. I planned to have at least one child by now. It's been 2 years of trying and I'm not even pregnant. I planned to be able to go to Daytona today or Bristol or Darlington this spring. Instead, I was driving to work a little over 2 weeks ago and got hit by a teenage driver. That accident has thrown a huge wrench in my plans. Now instead of going to a race, I have to go to a neurosurgeon because I have lost sensitivity in one of my toes and can barely grip anything in my hand to say the least of my problems from it.
Like the game of Life, we never know what joy or catastrophe is around the next bend. All we can do is live the best life we can and roll with the unexpected. I am thankful to be alive. I have a caring family and an amazingly supportive husband who is beyond understanding. I have friends who want me to come watch the kick off race of the best sport around and they are willing to do whatever it takes to make me as comfortable as possible in my current state. As crappy as my life of daily pain and frustration seems right now, it could be worse.
Sometimes we just have to remember that life happens and be thankful for those who try to bring us some light in our darker times. It doesn't matter how much your parents try to prepare you, one is never fully prepared for Life.
Too true that one is never fully prepared for life.. I'll have to share with you my story sometime but it's has some similarities to this and I've come to the point where the life I had "planned" and dreamed about wasn't God's plan and even though I still dream and dabble in the life I had wanted I'm a better person, and a more happier person in the Life God made for me. I had hoped to have a full scholorship at college for my mad awesome volleyball skills and finish college and work as an auditor and travel around auditing companies. My back injury killed the volleyball dreams and I fought to make my body do what I wanted and the more I fought the more God fought back. I wish I had listened to him a LOT sooner and had surgery earlier or at least not fought it so much. In my dream I never wanted kids, only wanted a man in my life if it was 100% beneficial to being a success. And look at me now... I barely work, trying for another child and happily married to a silly silly man. Success is in the eyes of the beholder and you never know what path you would have been on if all this had not happened. And who knows what this path will bring you. I am glad we met and to think it was because of SCOTT! LOL.
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