I Once Drove A Bus

Back in the day, when I was a preschool teacher at "Creme de la Creme" part of my job was to travel to all the local elementary schools at the end of the school day and pick up kids who were going back to the daycare center until their parents came and picked them up. It wasn't a bus that required me to have my CDL, but nonetheless, it was a bus. I received one day training and was sent off into the bus world like I knew what the heck I was doing.

It didn't take very many curb checks and almost accidents for me to figure out I was really bad at left hand turns. Not sure what it was, but I could not get the correct depth perception of the bus, or angle, or something. I was bad at left hand turns. Every time I came upon a left hand turn my palms would sweat, a lump in the throat would form, and I would begin to FREAK OUT! So naturally, like any good bus driver would do, I completely reconfigure my entire bus route to ONLY include right hand turns. Wasn't that brave of me?! I literally spent hours studying maps in order to avoid something that was causing me great fear and trepidation. It lengthened my route considerably and I never conquered left hand turns.

Recently, I have been rerouting some things in my personal life in order to avoid left hand turns. I've spent hours analyzing new maps, new formulas, and different agendas so I can avoid some things that are causing me to be highly uncomfortable and discouraged. Oh, this isn't the first time, nor probably the last I will come to the end of myself and realize that I can no longer avoid the left hand turns in my life. I gave it a valiant attempt this time around,(just ask Mark how much I've stewed) and came up entirely short. I've known it all along, taking just right hand turns only extends my route and teaches me avoidance instead of victory.

Taking left hand turns can be scary. We can hit a bunch a curbs, we can have near collisions, or even true accidents. It can be painful to watch the paint of your heart get scratched, your ego bruised, your plans rerouted, and your map of "life" null and void. But never growing, never changing, and never claiming victory over the left hand turns in our lives has to be FAR worse.

Turn that left blinker on!
Here is to taking some of those left hand turns!
~Sara