One thing that inspires me the most about Rick Springfield is his drive to doing what he loves. He’s already an accomplished musician, songwriter, author and actor. Who knows what he’ll do next? He likely has more music, songs, books and acting gigs in his path and maybe he’ll even discover another passion, like some kind of charity work or ambassadorship. You never know, but he is so talented and driven that he has many options. When he was younger and going through difficult times, he may have never imagined the type of success that would someday become his but he kept persevering and that is so beautiful and inspiring.
Maybe this means I’m on the verge of a midlife crisis but I’ve been feeling very introspective lately, reflecting on where I am and how I got here. And trying to figure out what’s next.
On one hand, I have everything I ever wanted – a wonderful husband, amazing kids, good health and a job I enjoy. On the other hand, one thing that I never emphasized that much is the financial compensation that helps make life a little easier. In my equation of what makes a successful life, I idealistically thought that money wasn’t an important component of it. But now with three kids I’m kind of wishing that my passion would have focused in a different direction than print journalism. True, there wasn’t any clue that the Internet was coming and how that would impact my desired field but why didn’t I pay attention a little earlier?
A few weeks ago, I passed my exit on the freeway because I was deep in thought about something. The following day, I almost did it again. Then when I started thinking about why that was happening, it occurred to me that passing an exit is really a metaphor of life. If you are “driving” through life without paying attention to where you are going, you could end up lost.
And from those thoughts came this:
Distracted driving
I passed my exit
I drove too far
Caught daydreaming
Inside my car
Where are we going?
Are we lost?
Distracted driving
Paying the cost
I’m thinking about where we have been
And I’m wondering if we’ll get back there again
So many roads lead to so many places
How do you know which one to choose?
All of the signs point in different directions
With some you win and some you lose
When the gauge is pointing to empty
It can really overshadow your day
But you just have to find the fuel
So you can continue on your way
I’m thinking about where we have been
And I’m wondering if we’ll find our way again
Around, round, round, round, round
The scenery looks the same
Driving down, down, down the road
Where nobody knows your name
I’m thinking about where we have been
And I’m wondering if we’ll get back home again.
Update: I eventually ended up recording this one. Here it is:
My Rick Springfield crush 