My Path, My Journey

Life is a journey, but up until about three years ago I believed there was only one single vision of what that journey was suppose to look like.  I was raised in an upper middle class family with strong religious, political, and social viewpoints that mirrored that of my extremely non-diverse community.  This singleness of mind from just about everyone around me provided a sense of security and belonging, but it also created a very narrow path of how to act and think.  And while there were times that I diverged from that path I always came back, because ultimately I believed what I had been told my whole life- that it was the only way.  The only way for peace, the only way for happiness was following this very narrow path.  Then a few years ago something happened.  I hit a wall.  I hit a wall and realized I just couldn't walk this path anymore.  Why?  Because it's not my path.  This path was created by someone else with their dreams, their desires, their opinions, and their goals in mind.  Once I realized that, I was free.  Free to create my own journey, free to pave my own path.  But I was scared.  My freedom made me feel very vunerable.  I no longer had direction and I questioned my purpose.  So I've spent the past three years sort of floundering around trying to sort out what from my culture and upbringing I want to take with me.  Afterall it wasn't all bad, in fact there was a lot of good maybe even most of it, but certainly not all of it.  So taking what I want from my past and seriously considering what I want for my future, I am ready to start laying my own path ,day by day, cobblestone by cobblestone.