Yetis and Their Ways.

Soooo, here you are at some pivotal crossroads that you never intended to be a stopping point on your journey to begin with. There were supposed to be trials and tribulations, that was never debated. There were going to be ups and downs...but, what from a distance looked like a small hill in reality was a hulking mountain complete with man eating animals and yetis. Not those nice, fuzzy, "Harry and the Henderson's" yetis either. Big, gnarly, tooth-gnashing, save-the-women-and-children -esque yetis.

As a child, it's so easy. "I'm going to grow up and be a _________". Choose your poison. Dreams are there to propel us through the pain, and grotesque disfiguration of adolecsence. It serves as a figuritive touchstone. Something to rely on when proms come and go. Something to cling to when the "cool kids" peer through you without so much as a second look. "Oh yeah! Well, wait until I become a _________!" Dreams of world domination. Landing at the reunion in a sleek Jet Ranger, clad head to toe in Versace...miniature dog in a Coach bag...you know. Retribution.

Suddenly there you are. 30. Life didn't go quite like you thought, now did it? Failed relationships. Utter frustration that the dream that once carried you through life on a cloud has turned on you only top become your biggest heartache. Wishing that you could punch the rewind on the Big Giant Remote of Life. The high-pitch creak of the door of opportunity swiflty slamming shut...

...or is it...

Maybe this time, this age, and these lessons have all served to take us to a different place. A different station. Sure the dreams have changed, but did they really fail us? If they managed to envelope us in a haze of hope at times when we desperatly needed them, have the really let us down in the end? Maybe the real purpose of the dream is to provide us a stepping stone to other places in life. Maybe they don't all pan out the way we hope, but the lead us to other "sub-dreams" that themselves become goals, and direction.

I am thirty one. I never became a rock star. I never became a doctor, or a lawyer....but...I am going back to college. I am playing music in a great, dank, dimly lit blues bar with amazing musicians. I am writing hours a day. I am changing my life, as my dreams change with it.

Life is never the way you think it's going to be at 18. The road is never well lit, and the hike is never 100% without ills. The things that lead us along, our dreams, never leave us. They just morph into other dreams more suited for the path that we have to take in order to make it through life. Life is never without its yetis. Luck for us, even a yeti can have a sense of humor.