Life Plan

I had a conversation with a mentor of mine recently about the next steps in my career and where I think I may want to go next professionally.  The options are almost guaranteed to require another relocation.  I've moved 6 times in 6 years.  The longest I've ever lived in one place after college was the small town of Cape Girardeau, MO.  Two and  a half years I spent in this very quaint small town of about 35,000 people.  It was the only place I listed by name as not wanting to move to after repatriating from Brazil.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It wasn't significantly better either.  Yes, yes I met some fantastic people and made great friends and have very fond memories of my time there.  I adopted my best friend Bailey, I bought a house, I did a lot of life in small town USA.

The shortest time lasted 6 months when I was in Florida (that constitutes the big section of missing life from this blog.)  I really enjoyed Florida.  I met great people, the weather was delightful.  I spent a lot of time outside, Bailey had friends and parks to run around in and overall it was great.  Then I moved again.

On average, I've moved once every year for the last six years.  These aren't small moves.  These are big, cross country and sometimes intercontinental moves.  During this mentor conversation I boldly said - "I don't want to move anymore."  I'm not sure how he took that news.  I'm not sure if he really cared.  I struggle at times to feel like the people I work with are at all concerned with Allison the person or if they are only interested in Allison the warm body that pushes the corporate agenda.

That's cynical.

He did ask me if I had given any thought to a life plan.  I thought that was sort of a funny question because the answer was of course - no.  My life plan??  My life plan was to graduate, get a job that I loved, travel a bit, fall in love, stay passionate, and forever be happy.  The details of when and how all that may come to pass were left out.  Here I am sitting on the other end of the line with my mentor and all I can think about is that I've kept my life plan a fairy tale.  How am I suppose to make that happen?

So... what is my life plan?  If I take my career out of center stage and put myself as lead actor, what would the story of this play be?

I don't know.

I still want to find the job I love.

I still want to remain passionate.

I still want to travel and forever be happy.

I still want to fall in love with someone forever.

I still want the fairy tale.