A conversation over dinner this past weekend is inspiring today’s entry. Now first, a disclaimer – in no way am I complaining about my own life today. In fact, I wouldn’t trade my life for anything and I wouldn’t trade being a parent for anything. My darling daughter fulfills me in ways I never imagined possible before children.
Now that being said, I’ve always been aware that someone else is living my “real life.” And most definitely, I felt that someone else was living my “real life” before I even had kids. I’m sure many of you can relate. But let me elaborate.
First of all, my “real life” actually takes place in San Francisco. In this life, I am not worried about the fact that housing prices are sky high there and jobs might be scarce. On top of it, I am the head of corporate communications for the Gap. This high powered job doesn’t impact my family life and my time with my daughter, of course. I also do a lot of pro bono work to fight the international trafficking of women and children. I probably jet around with President Clinton to fight AIDS as well.
In this life, I most definitely “weekend” in Tahoe through ski season – oh – and the inevitable traffic that exists for weekend trips like that between SF and Tahoe – never happens in my real life. Let’s be honest, we have a ski cabin in Tahoe. Naturally it has a view of the Lake and mountains.
Also, in my real life, on a moment’s notice I am off on fabulous vacations. Fiji? How about we stop over in Paris for a few days on the way?
Boating? Let’s head to Hawaii for a long weekend.
Work trip to Hong Kong? Let’s head over to Bali once the work portion is complete.
Isn’t my real life fabulous?
For those cynics out there, my husband and daughter are, indeed, in my real life and play important roles, that part hasn’t changed. As I said, I’m not complaining about them, I just have a “real life” out there somewhere that is fun to live in my head.
If you ask someone about their real life, you’ll get a really good window into their soul. You will really see what they might regret about decisions they’ve made, what kind of career path they would have followed, why they didn’t follow that path, and all the places they want to travel too. It’s particularly fun to ask your own mother or Aunts these questions because then you are most likely to learn of the career path they would have chosen had their been more options beyond nursing and teaching, for example.
KT would love to hear all about your real lives…..
