I met an old friend for breakfast today. We went to high school together. Even though, back then, we were nearly inseparable, we haven’t spent time together in years. While reminiscing at breakfast, he reminded me of our life back in the day: school, work, dinner with his family, then often falling asleep watching movies and talking. The next day, we’d do it all over again. It was innocent. We were friends. We hung out – like all the time. As we remembered today, “Those were the days that my biggest worry was coming up with $10 to pay my beeper bill.” Laugh out loud. Yes. That was so true. We had no idea how good we had it.

In high school, I spent a ton of time daydreaming about my future self – how life would be as an adult. Now that I’m there, all I can say is you just never know what will come your way. Even when the things I daydreamed about came true, they were always different than I imagined.

So anyway, my friend’s most vivid memories of me were obviously from high school. Back then, I was not at all afraid to say what I wanted. And he reminded me what those things were. Apparently, I said I was going to marry a doctor, have no kids and travel the world.

Funny how things work out. I’m marrying a doctor, I have no kids and I’m making plans to travel the world.

Yet, I spend a good part of my days pondering happiness, striving to live authentically and trying to figure out how to have it all.

According to my high school self, I do have it all.

I never thought of it that way before, and this realization gives me pause. When I was young, things were more black and white. I knew what I wanted and what I didn’t want, and there wasn’t much room for shades of gray. As an adult, I realize that life is more than any of that.

Life is unexpected. It’s this great big watercolor. The paints are all mixed up and blended together. And it takes a whole hell of a lot of work and attention and effort to bring those colors together to make your ideal picture.