I used to think life was supposed to be linear.

Pick a major.
Pick a career.
Pick a wife.
Pick a house.
Have kids.
Set your GPS and follow the path straight to success.

But my life has never played out like that.
Not even close.

I started in pre-med.
Switched to accounting.
Then switched again. And again.
No expectations, just enjoying whatever whim I had in a new major... Just doing it.

And somewhere in between all that?

Friendships.
Longing.
Detours I can’t talk about... but shaped everything.
Moments where I didn’t follow the map ... I followed a feeling.

It wasn’t ambition that kept me shifting lanes.
It was something more fragile... and maybe more human.

Companionship.
Curiosity.
That ache to find something that fit, even if I didn’t know what I was looking for.

I didn’t always believe the detours were leading somewhere.
A lot of the time, it just felt like I didn’t want to leave the road I was already on.
I loved my life too much to abandon it… even if I didn’t fully understand where it was taking me.

Years later, I finished.
Not because I found my purpose…
but because I had run out of reasons to keep running.

And what did I land on?

Political science - International Relations.
A subject that was prestegious... a diplomat... I thought would make me logical and grounded...
only to realize it was all stories.
Histories. Narratives. Power dynamics. The human condition.

Turns out, the thing I’d been trying to escape ... my instinct to see the world emotionally ... was the very thing that made me good at what I did.

And maybe... maybe I was never logical first.
Maybe I just adapted well.
Maybe I thought I was technical because I needed to be.
But underneath all that, I was built THIS way.
To feel first. To see the story. To find the meaning.

My dad’s an architect.
He taught me that beauty and math aren’t enemies ... they’re dance partners.
Maybe that’s where it started.

So, I don’t live in extremes anymore.
Not fully logical. Not purely creative.
Just somewhere in the in-between.
The grey space.

And honestly?
That space is where I’ve found the most truth.

So no, I didn’t take the direct route.
I took the scenic one.

And if someone still thinks that was a waste of time…
That’s okay.

Because somewhere on that winding road, I stopped chasing the right path…
and started becoming the right person.

And that’s what made all the difference.