I Had It All Wrong

Hardly anything has turned out the way I imagined it at the first. What seemed so important years ago now hardly makes a blip on the radar screen of life. What I feared isn’t so bad, sometimes it’s good. Boy if I knew then what I know now.
When I was in college I remember chafing about all the useless general education requirements I was required to take in addition to the classes associated with my major. I, along with every other undergrad student was sure it was simply a conspiracy to keep us in school longer so the university could extract more semesters of tuition from us. (The fact that more students were turned away from admission than were admitted was not considered.) Now I realize the greatest value of my university experience was those hated Gen. Eds. The exercise of entering into the foyer of so many different worlds and getting to know their inhabitants, briefly and shallowly as it was, has made all the difference in my ability to understand and appreciate people.
When I looked for a spouse, I looked for someone who as like me, at least in the critical areas of life. But after nearly 30 years of sometimes tumultuous marital bliss, I realize it’s in the differences that we really compliment each other. And who can measure the value of someone who sees clearly into my own blind spots?
I have always sought a way through life that would have me participating in as few “train wrecks” as possible. But hitting the shoals has been the thing that has contributed most in developing my ability to really “get” life, and to make the most of the times when the sailing has been smooth.
God has shown true mercy in not granting too soon the blessings I sought. Some of them would have cursed me. None of them would have enriched me as much if they had come any sooner than they did. Whoever said that youth was wasted on the young, was middle aged and grateful.