Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow

On Friday night, we were coming home after dinner at a friend’s house when we hit some road construction on the freeway. We were nearly home, just one exit to go when sudden and poorly-marked lane closure came ahead of us, slowing traffic just after the peak of a hill. I braked to slow down, just as Kevin yelled for me to stop. Luckily there I was a safe distance back from the driver in front of me and we dropped to the speed of the traffic ahead of us. I snapped at Kevin, telling him to not tell me how to drive. It was at that point that we were thrown forward by a massive impact. A driver behind us had slammed into the back of us. We heard other loud crashes and squealing tires so I centered the wheel but I felt our car being pushed rapidly sideways into the cement median. I held by breath and braced for the worst.

Fortunately, the worst never came.

Five cars were involved including ours and the driver that hit us. No one was hurt and my car (in front of the pack) got the bulk of the damage. We got really lucky.

Ouch!

All weekend I replayed the situation in my head, remembering how I felt and how much I feared in that moment knowing that just a split second reaction from another driver could have meant we didn’t come home that night. This got me thinking about my life and assessing where I am, what I’m doing and whether if I died tomorrow, I’d be content with where I was. I reflect on my life and thought about whether I was getting what I wanted out of it.

My conclusion was yes!

I’m happy with my life. I’m grateful for Kevin, my friends and family. The work that I’m doing, where we live, and how we’re spending our time.

One of the things I’m proudest of though, is that we’ve made travel a major priority. For the first time in my life, I can say that I’m traveling just as much as I want to! This has involved serious trade-offs, we’re not making the money we would if we had high-power careers and we’re not buying a house like many of our friends. But this is what we want out of life and we’ve stopped making excuses.

Where do you want to go?| flickr: ros-k

What about you?

What would you do differently if to live a life without regrets? Where would you go and what would you do? The accident this weekend was a good reminder to me that things can change very fast and to not put off things I’ve always wanted to do.

So take that step. You never know what will happen tomorrow.