How Far

I like country music. I think I have publicly admitted to this before so no making fun of me. One of my favourite songs of this genre is Martina McBride How Far. The melody is simple and singable. The lyrics are what get to me though.

It talks about someone willing to leave a relationship, although she doesn't want to. She will do anything to get the one she loves to notice her. She will do anything. She is willing to go so far in order to save the relationship that she loves.

I wonder how often we are willing to do the same things in our lives. We make wishes for things that we don't get because we weren't willing to fight for it. We are not willing to make sacrifices of the sure things we have in order to get the possible things that we want to have. Most lives are full of ended relationships that we wish we had back. There are always the 'what ifs' that run around in our heads. What if we had stayed with that person? What if we had chosen another school? What if I had done what I had wanted and not what my parents wanted me to do? What would we do if we didn't have the 'what ifs'? How far would we be willing to go to try what we want to?

Society places a high value on security and the trappings that go along with that idea. The chances that we take (or don't) are usually focused around the idea of getting that. We finish school when we have to and then go out into the real world and get a job, usually one that we hate. There was once a point in most of our lives that we wanted to make a difference. We wanted to join the Peace Corps, volunteer to build a school in a Third World country or teach English in Asia. We wanted to have the time to see Europe and back pack around the world. We want to do so many things with our lives, but most of the time, we don't. We grow up, do boring things with our lives that we later regret and spend our lives wishing that we had done them when we were younger.

How far would we be willing to go to get the things that we want in life? Would we be willing to disappoint some of the people in our lives when we go far to make our own dreams happen? Are we able to make our own lives worth it?

I'm in a place right now where many people have given up a lot to be here. And none of them regret it. Many have come from countries in Europe or in South America to work here. Some have even come from various places in Asia. They have given up the life they are accustomed to and their safety nets of friends and family. They have been willing to come far for this. I wonder how far I will be willing to go when I have the chance. I was not able to leave school this year in order to stay in the place I want to for various reasons, but I am able to come back. I have not been able to go far enough to stay in the place that I want.

I know in the past I have not been willing to go far enough to stay in relationships that may have been worth it. They probably weren't, but they may have been. Now I have a relationship that will be worth it. And I'm willing to go far for it. Possibly all the way to Germany if that's what I have to do. I am willing to set the priorities in my life and hang onto them with everything I have. How ever far I am required to go to hang onto them is how far I will go. How far will others in my life be willing to go? I wonder . . .