The Opposite Way

This is me in Morocco.  The vendor told me I was truly like "une princesse marocaine"

I had to take my friend this morning and was living vicariously through her by going to the gateway to anywhere in the world:  the airport.  Since I am stuck on the ground for now, I was loving the opportunity to help someone else go out into the world.  While listening to the radio in my car on the way home, a song came on that I've heard before but never really listened intently to the lyrics.  Turns out this song really spoke to me because the first half was how I grew up.  The song?  "The Opposite Way" by Leeland.

It struck me because I've always felt like in my family, profession, among peers and in whatever I do, I do it the opposite way.  In short, life for me has brought with it isolation.  I tend to go against the grain, not in a rebellious way, just in a quest for something else.  Perhaps, an alternative solution, different mode, who knows.  This is quite different than how I grew up.  Picture it: small suburb of Rochester, NY where generations of family members have lived, worked, and died.  Its almost the secret handshake or unwritten rule of our family:  live in the same place and act accordingly.  

And then there's me.  Stuck in the middle of an expected lifestyle and uncharted territory.  In high school, while looking at colleges, I remember looking outside my limited scope of the world and sought elsewhere.  Unsure as to the consequences or rewards, I knew this town's perimeter was too small for me.  I chose a school in another state, 6 hours from home.  It was perfect.  My junior year, I knew the limits needed to be pushed yet again.  I went to France for a semester and came alive.  My fate was sealed that I could not go back to where I came from, geographically or philosophically.  It was time to move on to the opposite way.

My adventurous spirit has led me to Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Monaco, Costa Rica, Morocco, Mexico, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Haiti.  Whereas the bulk of my relatives have stayed within the confines of the same old way.  My grandfather always asks me when I'm coming home.  I guess I've been disappointing him for 14 years by doing other than the family norm.  I'm so far gone, he doesn't understand my need for globe trotting.  I'm not sure where I got it from--switched at birth?  Not likely.  I just have this inner desire to know what's out there and a documentary just won't cut it.  Some call it restlessness, I call it insatiable adventure.

Lyrics for The Opposite Way by Leeland can be found here.