The Accidental Story

   I think most people who know me well would agree with my description of self as a "Planner."  I live by the calendar, and without my personal pretty floral spiral-bound planner, I'd be lost.  Everything I do is on some sort of calendar.  I have a chore calendar for my husband, an activity calendar for my kids, and a menu calendar for myself.  I make training calendars whenever I sign up for a race, and make calendars specific to log food intake and exercise output.
   With that said, most people who know me would also agree that my obsessive planning behavior has led me to many successes.  However, those that know me very well also are aware that NOTHING that I plan out actually turns out that way.  They may agree that I work hard and hopefully has and will result in me not failing at life, but each and every success or great thing in my life has purely been accidental.  I am married, have 2 children, am in dental school, served in the military via West Point...and to be honest...none of this was ever in my plan when I would spend all my time daydreaming about my future life timeline in high school English.
   As I go through life and get older wiser, I can appreciate that the best things in my life (and probably in many others) are just purely not part of that plan.  I am finally at an age time in my life where I can appreciate that things that don't go as planned don't need to be devastating - they can be embraced, and once I open my eyes to it, the goodness usually shines through.  I bet there are other who can enjoy the many blessings in their lives that just kind of "happened" at the wrong time as originally planned (like say, getting pregnant at 25 instead of 30).  There are probably others who can now appreciate all the questions of doubt when going through various paths of life, wondering if they should turn around, continue on, or just pave new ones - only later to discover that whatever they chose was the best thing for them (like changing careers when they've got a good one going for them).  And I've met others who, in their worst hours of grief and suffering, are able to find a new light that never would have shown without it ever being dark to begin with (like losing a loved one and finding another to share the pain).
   People who also know me will testify to the fact that I'm a pure clutz.  In fact, me twisting my ankle four times during Cadet Basic Training at West Point took me to the medic, who introduced me to my future husband because he noticed we shared the same last name (more on that later).  Not all, but many of my spills and accidents have actually turned out for the better, and despite the embarrassment of being evacuated off the German Alps by a bright yellow helicopter, not many girls can say that they were under the care of a 20-something year old doctor with green eyes, dark brown hair, and a rolling French accent whose resemblance to Clark Kent can really make a gal believe in Superman.
   With the growing decades experiences under my belt, I can look back on life and honestly say that the way things did turn out are as perfect as they can be...and aside from a few fashion choices I made back in the '90's, I don't think I would change a thing.  I have made a lot of bad choices, done a lot of stupid things, and made some decisions along the way that I wasn't so sure of at the time but brought me to where I am today.  Somehow I went from wanting to go to art school and seeing how expensive it was, to an internet search on "free college" and landing on a link that led to the US Military Academy.  Somehow I spent my deployment to Iraq getting medical supplies to healthcare providers and continually ran into a bunch of cool dentists who eventually turned me away from medicine and got me into dentistry.  Somehow I got this guy to be responsible for breaking my ankle and the guilt was so overwhelming he eventually just married me (To this day he will tell you I stepped on his foot.  It's a lie.)  Somehow my best friend thought she was pregnant and got me to take a home pregnancy test with her for moral support, only she ended up being the one to save  me from a much larger surprise several months down the road.  (Best surprise of my life!)
   As I turn 30 yet another year in a few months, I can say there are a lot of things I miss about being young naive.  I'll miss thinking I have so much time to figure out my life, I'll miss how my body can rebound after a few all-nighters, I'll miss the feeling that I'll be around forever.  But the truth is, while time is infinite, our time is not, and looking back and regretting things that have happened or choices that were made is just not the way to go.  I still have my planner, but really, now that I'm older more mature, I know it's only here to make me laugh when I look back on it and see how far off the mark I was.  So this blog is just a way for me to document here on out - the funnies, accidents, whoopsies - of life after all those that occurred in my previous life.  I somehow went from being a high school orchestra nerd to a West Point cadet, an Army officer, a wife, mom, dental student, and am so very excited for what else is in store.