A Million Miles from Reality

Posted by Cynical Sarah on January 6, 2007

Do you ever have one of those days where you look around and wonder how you got where you are? Sometimes when I’m on the way to work our sitting at my desk looking out the window out over the downtown area, I’m amazed at where I’ve ended up in life so far.

Growing up in the relatively small Midwest cities, I never would have imagined ending up in a big city, working in the heart of downtown and not feeling completely overwhelmed by it all. The small-town girl still inside of me wonders how I don’t panic every day that I step outside my home.

I remember being in high school and thinking that I would be happy with just getting married right after graduation and living the family and housewife life. My reality back then was that marriage was the ultimate way to go.

Lucky for me, the right person and moment didn’t present themselves right after high school, and I settled for heading to college instead and getting my education. Also lucky for me, there was some small kernel of independence inside me that was growing like a weed inside me and college was the perfect fertilizer for it.

Suddenly I had this whole new reality that included finding a career and supporting myself, and whether I was doing it single or with someone wasn’t really of any consequence anymore.

I wouldn’t say I was ready to take on the whole world, but I certainly knew that I could take on the Midwest without any problems and really make a life for myself. But still, my vision of the future was limited to close to “home.”

Never in a million years would I have thought at the time I’d fall in love with a Canadian and end up a million miles from the reality I knew.

Suddenly I’m a small town girl surviving just fine in the big city. More than just surviving really, thriving is more like it.

There are days when I’m gazing out of my 14th floor office window overlooking the art gallery downtown, and I wonder if I’m going to wake up one day and find out it was all a dream. Am I really a happily married 28-year-old with a great job with a great company living in an ocean-side city with a great view of the mountains?

I certainly hope so. I’d rather not wake up back in grade school waiting to for that day to come again when I can look around in wonder and with ultimate satisfaction at the life I’m living.

- Sarah L. Polson

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