Wrong Turns Can Yield Important Life Lessons

The first few times I ever drove through downtown Atlanta, Georgia, I thought I would lose my mind. I had just begun a new job in the area and had rehearsed the route to work in my mind several times. As soon as I was in the middle of rush hour traffic, however, my nerves took over. Each time, I either missed my turn, or turned down the wrong street.

If you've ever driven in downtown Atlanta, you know that it is a maze of one-way streets, to the extent where circling around the block is impossible in many areas. For that reason, I often found myself becoming extremely stressed as I attempted to navigate the unfamiliar terrain, only to get farther and farther away from my intended destination. By the time I did finally make it to work, I was completely flustered, plus I was quite angry with myself for being navigationally challenged.

Recently, as I left a work-related conference in a large center, I proceeded to head down the left side of a steep stairwell instead of the right. Spotting several students coming up that way, I quickly shifted my position to the right side of the stairwell. As luck would have it, my actions did not go unnoticed.

"Oops - you almost went down the wrong road!" a colleague yelled to me from behind.

"That's the story of my life," I jokingly replied.

"Well, it's the story of mine too," he agreed.

We both laughed and kept walking as we went our separate ways.

Being the philosophical person that I am, that brief exchange sent me into deep thought as I walked to my car. Many of us, at some point in our lives, make what we consider to be a wrong turn. Sometimes it seems as though we're stuck in a maze - like the one I struggled with as I attempted to learn how to get to my job in Atlanta. We may have missed our turn, or gone down one road when another might have been more expedient, efficient, logical or practical.

Fortunately, as I have grown older and somewhat wiser, I have learned a few valuable life lessons about "wrong turns," which I occasionally have to remind myself of when I feel frustrated because I have gotten off track from where I want to be. First is that the shortest, most efficient route somewhere is rarely the most scenic. Nor is it necessarily the best route to take.

Flying by airplane, for example, is an expedient way to get to your destination, and in some cases it is the absolute best or only way to go. Yet it's hard to truly appreciate your surroundings when you're that far up in the air. Road trips may take a lot longer, but you can appreciate the beauty of nature and take time to reflect when you're traveling long distances by car or bus. When we focus only on our destination, we miss the value of the journey and all of the many wonders it may yield along the way.

The second lesson that I have learned about "wrong turns" is that there's usually more than one way to get to a destination. My husband always emphasizes how important it is to know several different ways to get to and from work and home. This became ever-apparent to me when I found myself having to exit off an interstate prematurely one evening because the interstate had been shut down due to a water mane break somewhere off in the distance. I panicked, never having gone that way before. But the one good thing that came out of that dreadful experience was that I learned a new way home. And that prompted me to want to learn another route - and another, so that I would always have options.

The third lesson that I have learned is that "wrong turns" sometimes lead us to better destinations than the ones we were originally headed for. We may grieve, for example, over the loss of a relationship or job that means the world to us and perhaps even blame ourselves for this or that which caused the loss, only to find out later on that something better for us was out there all along. In the end, we can appreciate the fact that things did not work out the way we had originally hoped or planned.

In short, wrong turns in life may suck on the front end, but usually there's a blessing somewhere around the corner. However, you run the risk of missing out of the blessing if you focus only on the negatives. No one makes a wrong turn as says, "Yeehoo! I have officially screwed up!" But what a wonderful feeling it is when that wrong turn leads to an incredible new beginning - one that exceeds all hopes and expectations.