Detours, adventure, and learning that life doesn’t have to follow a straight path
The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.
Albert Einstein
There is often an expectation that life should follow a clear and efficient trajectory. Education leads to a career, careers progress upward, and major milestones are expected to occur within a particular timeline. In reality, however, life rarely unfolds according to such structured plans. Unexpected opportunities, changes in direction, and moments of uncertainty often shape people in ways that careful planning cannot. The paths that appear indirect or unconventional frequently offer the most meaningful experiences.
When I was growing up, my mom instilled in me a love for the Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) that has stayed with me my entire life, especially their song “The Long Way Around.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but that song would end up shaping the way I approached my life. Its message, there is more than one way to move through the world, quietly stuck with me.
In many ways, that idea has manifested in my life now, at 25, without any full-time job experience. For a long time, this has felt like something I should be embarrassed about or an idea that I would have to justify to others. So many of the people I have grown up with or went to college with are already climbing career ladders, getting promotions, and buying houses (well, maybe not in this economy, but you get the idea). It’s easy to look around and feel like you’re falling behind. But the truth is that there is no single, correct, timeline to live your life by, and just because others are moving forward in one direction doesn’t mean that path has to be yours.
Growing up, I was what you might call a horse girl, although more of a struggling horse girl since my parents were unfortunately not multi-millionaires with money to blow on ponies. Riding was the thing that made me happiest, and somehow I always found a way to make it work. I spent my childhood figuring out how to be around horses even when the path to doing so was not always obvious or easy.
That pattern followed me into adulthood. I have always been someone who finds a way to do the things I want to do, even if the route there looks a little different from what people expect. I was artistic, independent, and never particularly interested in following a perfectly mapped-out plan. It was common for me to hear that I was taking the more difficult path, but that never swayed me.
Taking the long way around has shown up in my life in different ways. Sometimes it looks like skipping my college graduation ceremony and driving to a small town outside Yellowstone to work on a ranch for the summer. Instead of stepping neatly into the next expected phase of life, I chose four months of early mornings, horses, wide-open landscapes, and meeting people from all over the world passing through that small town. The friendships I formed and the stories I heard during that time remain some of the most meaningful moments of my life.
Other times, the long way around looks like driving across the entire country to Los Angeles and suddenly finding myself living on Hollywood Boulevard, right on the Walk of Fame. The transition from quiet ranch life to the constant energy of the city was jarring, but it was also another reminder that life does not have to follow one predictable path. I hiked in the mountains, watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean, and experienced a version of life completely different from the one I had known before.
What I have realized through these moments is that the long way around is not always about ending up exactly where you expected. Sometimes it is simply about allowing yourself the freedom to explore, to follow your curiosity, and to trust that the detours will teach you something valuable along the way.
So far, my life has looked less like a straight road and more like a series of turns, unexpected opportunities, and choices that did not always make sense on paper. Sometimes I look back and I wish that I could have done things differently but I have to remind myself that I would not be where I am today.
My latest adventure began when I met my boyfriend after returning home to Philadelphia. He was there on a J1 visa from Dublin, Ireland. I roped him along on adventure after adventure, convincing him to come on trips with me where we slept in my car and the scariest of hotel rooms (He plans the trips now).
I never expected that it would lead to an opportunity for me to follow him back to Ireland. Yet here I am, pursuing my master’s degree in Ireland.
Living in Dublin has added another unexpected turn to the path I have taken so far. Since moving here, I have met people from all over the world, each with their own stories, backgrounds, and reasons for ending up in the same place at the same time. Being surrounded by people from different cultures has expanded my perspective in ways I never anticipated. I have also had the chance to see some of the most beautiful sights, from the Irish countryside to the coastline, experiences that have made this chapter of my life particularly memorable.
At the same time, this period of exploration has also made it clear that eventually the wandering phase must come to an end, at least for me personally. I’ve loved the freedom that has come with taking the long way around, but I know the next step will probably involve finding a bit more stability. As much as I appreciate the adventure, I don’t think I want to spend the rest of my life sleeping in hostels or in the backseat of my car.
The less conventional path is rarely the most efficient one, but it often leads to the most interesting experiences. The unexpected turns, the places discovered along the way, and the people encountered on those detours tend to shape a life far more than a perfectly planned route. At the very least, the road less traveled usually results in much better stories to tell the grandkids someday.
My advice to you all is to take the long way around. You never know where it may lead you.
