Celebrating The Brave Souls Journeying The Road Less Traveled

A toast to those going against the grain!

Society’s cookie-cutter approach to the Stages of Life are a one-sized fits all solution that may not even fit most. Marriage isn’t for everyone. The predictable, stable 9 to 5 may not add up to happiness. Raising healthy, well-adjusted children certainly isn’t a task everyone is equipped for. Assembly line K-12, plus 4-years, doesn’t address the needs or abilities of all.

The people who are not the shape of “one size fits all” are not celebrated. In fact, I argue they are feared. Further, people trying to forge their own path are met with resistance, judgment, naysayers — everything that isn’t support. Only if/when a rebel becomes wildly successful does the support and celebration follow. It is easy to applaud J.K Rowling’s $1 billion dollar net worth and status as the world’s richest author. But how easy is it to applaud the unemployed, single-mother drafting a novel by hand in an Edinburgh tea & coffee house?

The road less traveled may not have much traffic, but it isn’t paved. Journeying into the unknown is scary, especially sans support.

People tend to cling to the cookie-cutter ideals, and they want others to do the same. It makes them uncomfortable when someone doesn’t want to conform. As if the person going against the grain calls their own choices into question. The brave soul who forges their own path shows the “what could be,” and maybe people are afraid to take a look at that.

Study after study of elderly people nearing death teach us that the most common regret people have at the end of life is that they did not live the life they wanted to live, but instead lived the life they thought they “should” live, the life they thought others expected of them.

“To thine own self be true…”

– William Shakespeare

To those who examined the choices, who know what makes their heart sing, who discovered that they are the “all” for the “one-size,” more power to you! You’re not a cookie-cutter conformists. I celebrate you, your white picket fence, 2.5 children, and employer-matched 401(k).

To those brave souls enduring those first shaky steps on the road less traveled — I celebrate you! To those round pegs who boldly rejected the square holes, and have found joy and success (however you define success) — I celebrate you!

To the Kindred Spirits answering the call of the road less traveled — I raise a glass to you!

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

– Apple’s “Here’s To The Crazy Ones” Ad Campaign, Steve Jobs

“A guy walks up to me and asks, ‘what’s punk?’ So I kick over a garbage can and say, ‘that’s punk!’ So he kicks over the garbage can and says, “that’s punk?’

and I say, ‘no, that’s trendy!”

– Billie Joe Armstrong