Why am I?

Why Am I

I have been thinking about putting some of my life stories and personal experiences here on my blog. I have certainly done some of that but I have kind of protected myself and maybe not quite exposed who I am. Maybe some people can learn from my mistakes. Certainly they can laugh at some of the places and situations in which I have found myself. Some people have asked me to do this and so I think I am going to give it a try. I will probably head all the blog entries in this series with Why Am I?

What is inspiring me to start this today on a wonderful fall day. I usually write about how much I like fall but you have all heard that enough. I will take advantage of this beautiful sunny day and start pealing away at the onion of my life.
There is actually something that happened today to make me start looking closely at my life. I have recently reestablished contact with one of my very closest high school friends. She will be the first person to see herself in my writing of this series. I don’t want to upset anyone but the people in my life are so very important and influence everything I do and think. This very special friend was married before she finished high school. I was not far behind her; I was married the August after I graduated. For several years our lives followed the same path. We had our children around the same time and spent endless hours together on the phone and hanging out. Then my husband and I moved to Colorado and things changed. By the way. At this point we were in Florida. I will tell more about that later.
We stayed in touch on and off for a while. Long distance calls were expensive but I think we sent tapes back and forth for a while. Now we are emailing each other almost every day and talking on the phone.
She is still married to the same man and living in the same house. They have done wonderful things to improve the house and have raised two sons. She is very active and has lots of friends. She writes very thoughtful things for Face Book and has an active life.
We had a conversation today about my husband going to China. I mentioned that China is not on my travel list. She told me she heard that they use toilets that are holes in the floor. She seemed incredibly shocked by this possibility. I have seen these toilets everywhere and have even written about using them. Probably half the world uses these toilets. I want to help her understand more about how the rest of the world lives but is that a good thing for me to do? How did I pull the string that gave me my life and how did she get her life. I don’t think either of us has a better life but I am sure glad I have mine.
This all made me think that I would like to explore why I am who I am. I can’t even begin to figure out why other people are who they are if I can’t figure me out. How did two people who stepped into being a grown up with what appeared to be the same tools, end up in the places we ended up and when all is said, how much does it matter. Thanks D for gently shoving me down this road.
Hang on friends because here we go on quite a journey.
Please let me know if I should continue down this path.