I Was Never Lost I Was Just Early

I recently went back and read one of the first posts I ever wrote on Tongue Twisted Traveler. The title was “Stagnant and confused,” and at the time, that’s exactly how I felt.


I wrote, “I’m having trouble picking a program,” and that line stayed with me. It wasn’t just about school. It was about direction. I felt pulled in too many directions but could not choose one path.

It was 2002. I was in my early thirties.

I had recently quit my job in journalism and was thinking about transitioning full-time into adult learning.

At the time, I was working in the language lab at Miami Dade College and had just been hired as a First-Year Experience coordinator. At the same time, I was applying to graduate school, trying to decide what direction my life should take.

I said, “everything I want to study relates to my other interests in some way.” That was the truth. Language, culture, global systems, communication. They were all connected, but I did not yet understand how.

Each day felt different. “On Monday I start leaning toward the study of linguistics.” Then, “on Tuesday I think I will study international relations.” By Wednesday, I was overwhelmed, thinking maybe I should “become a translator and just live my life through the experiences of others.”

Looking back, I was not confused. I was early.

I did not need to choose one path because my path was always going to be the intersection of all of them. Today, I live that reality. Through language, through conversation, through culture, I connect with people across borders in real time.

What once felt like indecision was actually curiosity without a container.

Now I have one.

And it looks a lot like everything I was searching for back then.

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