As I was doing some research on whether you really can see the Great Wall of China from Outer Space, I began to think about some of the decisions that I made in my life, and how I had to be in the right places at the right times to even see the opportunity I have had to make those decisions.
My biggest example would be why I am living in my current home city of Little Rock, AR and chasing a current career path of media and broadcasting. When I was leaving the Air Force, I was looking at going to school full time until I could figure out what I wanted to do in my next stage of life, after long giving up on my childhood dreams of being a DJ, and failing miserably to convince anyone that I was just a slacker meant to wander aimlessly through life.
Little Rock was nowhere near my radar. In fact, it was not being able to find an immediate job in Atlanta that lead me to move out of my town house in South Georgia and just drive home to my parents’ house in Louisiana without much of a plan. I was set to spend a few days at home and then go try my luck for a few weeks in Dallas, with the invitation to stay on a friend’s couch.
Intervention came from another friend who had come to visit me in Georgia about two years before. We had worked in radio together five years earlier in college, and she was currently working at a radio station, and she called me and caught me days before I was to shut off my home phone service and hit the road. She had the chance to sell me on the law school at University of Arkansas-Little Rock, and on the fact that I was actually pretty good in radio, and could do some side work until I got enrolled in classes. That diversion brought me to the city, which led to more decisions and diversions that kept me on my current path (and not path of signing up for grad school--I PROMISE it will happen this year Mom), that I basically had to be here to even get the chance to see and make them. Moving to anywhere other than Arkansas in 2002, for example, would probably not have led me to get married to wife who was living in Arkansas in 2004.
Trying not to get all Bless The Broken Road on you, but life only allows you the ability to make choices from the choices given. You can't catch a fly ball at a baseball game you didn't go to. You can't use a thunderstorm as an legitimate excuse to not mow my lawn on a clear and sunny day. You can't be in two different places at the same time, so you can't cash in on the opportunities available at two different places at the same time.
Do yourself a favor and stop being so hard on yourself for the opportunities you may have missed by not being in the right place at the right time in the past, and start a new focus and appreciation of the choices you were able to make and not make because of being who you were, right where you were. And if you're looking to make a future dream come true, and it takes being someplace else to make it happen, try working on getting to where you need to be.
Welcome to my new blog. This is where I will chronicle the next phase of mis-adventures of my life. Thank you for staying on the ride, and for you newcomers to the inside of my mental mania, I will do my best to make sure the trip is both entertaining and educational.
Life In Fast Forward: The Blog is still a bit of a work in progress. Keep checking in for new posts and site updates.
About Blog
This blog supports some of the thoughts and interjections from the folks at Fast Forward Business Properties. Our ideas, things we test, and a few random thoughts will show up here.
Name: J. Cleveland Payne
Home: Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
About Me: News is my profession, so it only fits that I am a news junkie. I'm a radio show/segment producer for a news/talk radio station in Little Rock, Arkansas.
