Fortune Cookies

My favorite part of getting Chinese food is the fortune cookie. Sometimes these little slips of paper can be dead-on. Other times, they are simply funny. For whatever reason I have kept my top three all-time favorite fortunes. And they are: you cannot discover new oceans unless you leave sight of the shore; you never regret the present, you live to its fullest; you are one of the people who "goes places in life."

A brief word on why I like each of these fortunes so much. For the first one, I am adventurous. For whatever reason, it was programmed into my DNA to think beyond... well, wherever I was. I won the 7th grade geography bee because I correctly identified the Danube River, at an age where most kids my age in Illinois were not thinking beyond Chicago. I like the metaphor of the fortune, too, that you can't discover what you are truly capable of until you leave what you know behind. I never would have guessed I'd be where I am today, doing what I am doing if I had not left what I knew behind.

The second fortune really resonates with me. In countless times in my life, the best, happiest moments have come when I've been totally, completely in the present moment. This is how I ended up dancing on tables with friends to old American favorites at a brasserie called Le Cabo in Brussels, walking through Sevilla late at night to a church in an Easter ceremony, celebrating New Year's in London on a whim, working at a ranch in New Mexico for a summer, and falling in love.

It can be hard sometimes, living fully in the present. Being open and being willing to try new things can sometimes mean I jump too far, too fast, that I dive in too deeply. It is a balancing act I am getting better at. But, I know the experiences I have continue to make me who I am.

And the third fortune - well, I go places often, and I like to think that I will also "go places"!