on milestones

First off, I'm so thrilled that spring has finally decided to grace Baltimore with its presence. It means eating my lunch outdoors which makes me so happy!

Last week I was on a bench enjoying the warmer temps and a salad when someone from the office spotted me and sat down to chat. Why not? We had the general small talk, found out we lived in the same town, and then something interesting happened.

The inevitable "where are you from?" question came up, so I gave my short story I give new people which goes a little something like this:

"I grew up in Northern Virginia which isn't very far, but I met my husband who lived here in Maryland and started coming up on weekends before transferring to finish school here. Then we got married and stayed here."

I think nothing of this information. It's a short way to get across the key points of the questions I know would follow the "where are you from?" question. Just little snippets of my life. But I definitely had to take pause at what he said  after hearing said answer:

"Wow, it sounds like you've really hit all your milestones."

I was shocked for a minute  before I was able to somehow prevent myself from laughing in his face. I certainly couldn't say anything to him that was running through my head at the moment:

"Ha! Buddy, you don't know me. My life hasn't been easy at all. Sure, I have the things I want now, but nothing, and I mean nothing happened the way I would have wanted or according to my own "milestone timeline." I mean, It took me 7 years to complete school with all the drama I dealt with, Sean and I were together five years before walking down the aisle (I was hoping for more like two!) and don't even get me started on the fact that I was grossly underemployed for three years (and got screwed over big time) before getting this awesome job. Oh no, I assure you that nothing has happened on my personal milestone timeline."

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Of course, I said none of that, but it was certainly a thought-provoking statement that ran through my mind the rest of the day. Sure, nothing happened how I wanted, but things did happen. Some people are still waiting. Some people rushed and regret their decisions or worse. So I have some of my milestones now, but I have them on God's timeline. I will be the first to honestly admit that the waiting sucks....there's no way around that! But, I will also be the first to praise Him and say that things are so much better according to His plan. Things could be so different had they happened my way. And in other ways I can look back and see God preparing me, even in the little things like getting comfortable driving to Baltimore and working in healthcare-related fields to get me to where I am now.

In the end, I'm blessed, and those blessings are so worth the wait that really, who cares if it took me a little longer?

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