Take Flight

DAY 7

of the 30-Day Blog Challenge, 2011

Part of flying is landing…with grace.

At a very lovely dinner with old and newly made friends, the subject of taking flight came up. And I paraphrase the words of Miriam, who, at the moment, holds the key to my next bowl of Ocean Don and being reunited with one of my favorite cafés in the world, even just for a moment. "It's easy to burst out and fly. It's in landing that you need grace and control."

In life, it's easy to be impulsive, or justify similar actions, especially when we truly want something, or when that something doesn't materialize nor come to our specifications. Finding ground means literally switching gears. It could mean learning how to react differently, breathing through a stressful situation, or simply being more respectful of circumstances.

When I first moved to New York, I made certain career mistakes—out of naiveness, impatience, or sheer ignorance (or all of the above). In my desire to reach new heights, I fell hard. I thought I'd never recover. But I did. And when that happened, I learned to be more deliberate in my actions, scrutinizing of people and situations, and most importantly, grateful for all the new opportunities that have given me the chance to try again, and try harder and hopefully make better decisions—in life and in career. True, some doors may possibly have closed permanently on me. But whereas a certain ship may have sailed, this plane has definitely landed.