Walk On

I spent time this weekend visiting a place that has been very significant to me, especially over the last year. I did it to come to terms with the fact that I can’t go ba­ck.

I know they say you can’t go home again. But I found I could go home again when I returned to Massachusetts in the early two-thousands. So I thought I could apply this here. I was wrong.

This visit, my best friend was no longer available to me. The sights didn’t seem as exciting. The food didn’t seem as great. Nothing matched my memories. I was simply visiting a place that used to be where I felt grounded…and now I’m just a visitor.

I share this with you because, as we move forward into whatever the future holds for us as educators and as people, as much as we want to…we can’t go back. Our memories are wonderful, our intentions are laudable, but the reality is once things have changed for us there is no going back…because there is no way to recreate the people and circumstances that came together at a fondly recalled place in time.

Perhaps we hold on to what we knew and loved because it was a time of growth and success. Perhaps we made assumptions that those people and circumstances would remain constants in our lives.­­­ Perhaps the comfort and familiarity of what we have known brings us warmth and happiness we don’t want to lose. Whatever the reason…no matter how well-intended, sooner or later reality hits and we suddenly come to terms with the fact that we’re not as well-grounded as we used to be or we want to be. We need to let go and move forward.

It’s ok. It’s alright. It’s not the end of the world. You accept you can’t go back…that things cannot be the same. It has to sink in for a while. And you will fight the fact before you finally accept it. But once you finally finish resisting the reality, something incredibly powerful happens. You look around. You become centered in who you are where you are now, and you start to focus your energies not on recapturing the security of your past but in realizing the promise of your future.

I talked to a wise confidantey of mine about this, and she said, “You make it sound like if you accept the past is over, there’s nothing to look forward to in the future! Why shut yourself off from all the potential you have in the years ahead? Who knows what might come your way…even bigger and better than what you’ve had!” She was right. Somehow in coming to terms with the fact that I can’t go back I was jumping to a place where I felt resigned that life as I knew it was over…and that’s a dangerous place to live. In fact, it didn’t feel like living at all. It felt limiting and frustrating and final.

And so I say to each of you as friends and colleagues, wherever your career is taking you…wherever your life is taking you…it’s ok. Don’t allow yourself to think of it as accepting the inevitable. You will have new opportunities ahead…you just need to be open to the possibilities…to engage yourself in the life you have now…to be alive in the present and learn.

I realize as I write this the reason I could go home to Massachusetts was because I was finding new people and circumstances in which to thrive. The fact that I reconnected with familiar faces and places as I settled in was incidental to my success in returning home. I was not trying to recreate what I remembered so fondly. Can we reconnect with people and situations from our past? Yes I believe so…but only on the new terms of the present moment . There is no going back.

The memories are always there. Be grateful for them and go back and visit as much as you like. But don’t seek to be grounded there. There is no firm footing in the past. Allow yourself to walk on and find your full potential…experience your whole happiness…without reservations or regrets. Life is too short…and you have too much to offer the people and circumstances waiting for you in the days ahead. Walk on...

Walk On lyrics: goo.gl/VtMy6