Writing Assignment Comm 1750 Robyn Black

The quote that rings truest with me is Kierkegaard’s, “Life must be lived forward, but
can only be understood backwards.” I have always lived my life knowing that no matter what
choices I make life will work out, and I will understand when I look back in reflection. I learned
at a young age that everything in my life happens for a reason. Every choice I make, and every
denied desire, may not make sense at the moment, but I know that I will be able to look back
one day and understand why my path moved in a different direction.

At the age of seventeen, I met the love of my life. We were so in love we were planning
our future. Then, in the summer when I was nineteen, our plans were altered forever when he
lost his battle with cancer. The future I had planned with him was no more. Time stood still; I
didn’t know what to do. That summer went by in a blur. I didn’t make any decisions about my
future or think about what it might hold for me. I just lived each day with no plan in mind.

Later that same year I met my now husband, and he made me feel whole again. I
cautiously let myself make plans with my new love because I learned at a young age that the
promise of tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Day by day our lives intertwined more and more. There
were days when I would look back and wonder where I would be if my first love had survived
his battle with cancer. As life went on, I stopped wondering ‘what if.’ When I settled down
with my husband, I looked back on what had become, and I realized that the first man I fell in
love with was a love in my life but not the love of my life.

Like the alterations to my love life, the career plans I had were also not meant to be.
When I came back from my first maternity leave, I was expecting to receive a permanent
assistant manager position. I had been with the company for over three years, and I had been
working in a management position before leaving. Upon my return to work, my boss had
informed me that the job went to a part-time manager instead. As a way of apologizing, my
boss offered me the assistant manager position at his new restaurant in another town.

I took the job, looking at it as a new opportunity to start fresh. Believing that I was
going in to be a manager, and with no intention of making friends, I was ready to start over.
Unbeknownst to me, life was going to challenge my ideas a second time. One waitress cracked
me and my ‘I’m not here to make friends’ attitude to become my best friend. When I left my
Writing Assignment Comm 1750 Robyn Black

assistant manager job for my second maternity leave, I realized that I wasn’t meant to have the
original assistant manager position. If I had stayed in the first restaurant, I would never have
met my best friend who has been an integral part of my life for over ten years now.

Kierkegaard's quote will always ring true to me because I know that I will never know
what great things are in store for me if I don’t keep moving forward and, in reflection,
everything will make sense. There is a wealth of knowledge available if I trust that if I keep
moving forward, I will understand when I look back in reflection.