One of my former managers used to include in her training curriculum, “Children learn pretty quickly if you stand still in a video game you are dead.” The point of this statement was to reinforce the idea of making a move. Sometimes that move is forward, backwards, diagonal or sideways. Sometimes we make a move without actually knowing the direction we are going in.
Taking a Risk
14 years ago today, my husband, our two daughters and I arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador from Ontario with only the clothes on our backs, and what was stashed in the trunk of our car. We had bought a house, sight unseen, over the phone, under construction at that time. My husband and I did not have jobs. We arrived in Pasadena not knowing where my parents lived (they had retired from Ontario a year before), my grandmother lived (she had sold her house), or where our new house was located. We found a house under construction that matched the pictures my uncle had sent us and walked through trying to make sense of what our new home would look like. We called my parents who came to get us.
Some would say we are risk takers. Who does this? Quits a job, and moves half-way across the country with their family? I must admit, at the time I did not see it that way. It seemed like it was the right thing for us to do. I had faith things would work out. They did.
Where I belong
When asked for my story, here is what I say.
Conceived in Newfoundland, born in Ontario, I belonged in both worlds or neither. 14 years ago my husband and I moved our family to Pasadena. When my grandmother heard the news, she said, “Finally, Carole is where she belongs.”
